Significant Changes of Corneal Astigmatism After Levator Muscle Surgery for Acquired Blepharoptosis

To investigate the change of corneal astigmatism after the correction of blepharoptosis.

This was a single-center retrospective cohort study conducted in Taiwan from 2017 to 2021. The medical records of patients with acquired blepharoptosis who had received levator muscle surgeries were collected. The differences in corneal astigmatism between the measurements before and at least 1 month after surgeries were investigated. Subgroup analysis of various severities of blepharoptosis and different types of corneal astigmatism was performed to determine their impacts on the axial changes after blepharoptosis surgeries.

A total of 120 eyes of 68 patients were enrolled in this study. The mean axial change of corneal astigmatism was 17.4° after blepharoptosis surgeries, and 55 eyes (45.8%) had a change of at least 10°. In the subgroup analysis, the eyes with against-the-rule, with-the-rule, and oblique astigmatism had 42.9%, 68.4%, and 91.7% with an axial change of at least 10° after surgeries, respectively. The averaged axial change of corneal astigmatism after surgeries was 22.7° in eyes with severe blepharoptosis (margin to reflex distance 1 < 1 mm), whereas it was 12.0° in eyes with mild-to-moderate blepharoptosis (margin to reflex distance 1 ≥ 1 mm).

A high proportion of eyes had a crucial axial change in corneal astigmatism after blepharoptosis surgeries, especially in those with oblique astigmatism and severe blepharoptosis. For blepharoptosis patients needing refractive surgeries or astigmatism correction with toric intraocular lens implantation, a surgical correction of blepharoptosis may be considered beforehand.