The Change of Corneal Astigmatism Following Varying Incision Locations and Methods for Cataract Surgery in Case of Against-the-Rule Astigmatism

ABSTRACT

Phacoemulsification and foldable PCL implantation was done on 51 eyes with preoperative against-the-rule corneal astigmatism. Different locations and incisions were employed 18 cases of supeiror scleral pocket incision(Group 1), 16 cases of temporal scleral pocket incison(Group 2), and 17 cases of temporal clear corneal incison(Group 3). Changes in corneal astigmatism were analyzed by vector method following operation. In group 1, the amount of against-the-rule surgically-induced-astigmatism was 0.72 D at potoperative 2 months. Minimal corneal astigmatic chagne was observed in group 2. Change of 0.83 D in the with-the rule direction was in with-the rule direction. In cases of against-the rule corneal astigmatism patients, it is better to use temporal approach considering surgically induced astigmatism, and, at postoperative 2 months, we observed that clear corneal incision induces with-the-rule surgically-induced astigmatism, and reduced total amount of corneal astigmatism.