The Effect of Astigmatic Control after Cataract Extraction with Temporal Incision

ABSTRACT

A group of 25 preoperative against-the-rule(AR) eyes had undergone phacoemulsification and posterior chamber lens implantation, 15 of them prepared with lateral(temporal) scleral pocket incision and 10 with superior scleral incision. Temporal incision group showed early AR astigmatism increment by about 1 diopter(D), which decayed slowly over the next 2 months. Superior incision group showed early with-the-rule (WR) astigmatism by about 2.5D, which shifted toward AR astigmatism at postoperative 10 day and the AR astigmatism increased substantially by the next 2 months. The early postoperative complications were hyphema(2 eyes, 13.3%) and corneal edema(1 eye, 6.7%) in the temporal incision group, which cleared spontaneously within 1 week pctoperative. There were no hyphema and corneal edema in the superior incision group. In summary, the temporal incision effectively achived rapid post-operative astigmatic recovery with strong axial stability in a manner that surgically induced astigmatism favorably reduces pre-existing AR astigmatism.