Prevalence of Astigmatism in Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery at a Tertiary Care Center in North India

To assess the demography, magnitude, and type of corneal astigmatism in patients undergoing cataract surgery in North India.

It is a clinic-based, cross-sectional, observational study. Keratometric values and demographic data were collected for eligible patients who had undergone phacoemulsification at a tertiary eye care center between January 2010 and December 2017, using a non contact, optical low coherence reflectometry (OLCR).

A total of 3597 eyes were recruited for the study. There were 1810 (50.3%) females and 1787 (49.7%) males. The mean age was 59.121±15.19 (range 5-100 years). A total of 3559 eyes were qualified for astigmatism analysis. The mean corneal astigmatism among all patients was 1.17±1.15 D (range 0-12.5 D). There was no astigmatism in 99 eyes (2.78%), with-the-rule (WTR) in 1062 eyes (29.83%), against-the-rule (ATR) in 1843 eyes (51.72%) and oblique astigmatism (OA) in 555 eyes (15.59%). The tendency of a gradual change from with the rule (WTR) to against the rule (ATR) astigmatism was noted as the age advanced.

In the present study around 56.69% of eyes had corneal astigmatism of <1.0 D that can be managed by simple cost-effective keratorefractive procedures especially in developing countries. However, our 40.49% patients had >1.0 D of corneal astigmatism, which may benefit by toric intraocular lenses.