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Updated: Nov 29, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancements in Refractive Surgical Correction for Presbyopia and Exploring Postoperative Visual Acuity
Published on: September 20, 2024
Evaluation of posterior and total corneal astigmatism with colour-LED topography
João Mendes1,2, Filomena J Ribeiro3,4,5, Tiago B Ferreira5
1Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. joao.mendes1807@gmail.com.
Purpose:
To characterise the posterior and total corneal astigmatism using colour point-source light-emitting diodes (LED) topography.
Methods:
In a prospective case series 400 eyes from 400 patients were evaluated by colour-LED topography. Only eyes with normal topographies were considered. The following parameters were studied: magnitude and distribution of SimK and posterior corneal astigmatism, correlation between SimK and posterior corneal astigmatism, and differences in magnitude and axis between total and anterior corneal astigmatism.
Results:
The mean SimK corneal astigmatism was 1.21 ± 0.94 D. The mean posterior corneal astigmatism was 0.37 ± 0.24 D. Posterior astigmatism was vertically oriented in 68% of eyes. Twenty-two percent of eyes showed a posterior corneal astigmatism ≥ 0.50 D. The correlation coefficients between SimK and posterior corneal astigmatism were: r2 = 0.066; p = 0.371 in WTR eyes, r2 = 0.112; p = 0.173 in ATR eyes and r2 = -0.019; p = 0.879 in oblique eyes. A difference between SimK and total corneal astigmatism ≥ 0.50 D was found in 7% of eyes. A difference in axis between SimK and total corneal astigmatism ≥ 10° was found in 24% of eyes.
Conclusions:
The percentage of eyes with posterior corneal astigmatism ≥ 0.50 D and the differences between anterior and total corneal astigmatism were higher than those previously reported in the literature. Therefore, this study supports the consideration of total corneal astigmatism magnitude and axis is mandatory for a precise surgical correction of astigmatism.
