J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  1996 Oct;37(10):1626-1632.

Astigmatic Changes after 6mm Scleral Tunnel Incisions at 1mm and 2.5mm from the Limbus in Sutureless Cataract Surgery

• Kim JK
• Ryu KH
• Lee DY

Abstract

We evaluated an effect of the distance between the incision line and corneal limbus on surgically induced astigmatism in sutureless cataract surgery with scleral tunnel incision. We made a 6mm scleral tunnel incision 1.0mm from the limbus (Group 1, 24 eyes) and 2.5mm from the limbus (Group 2, 30 eyes) and implanted polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) intraocular lenses with a round optic of 6mm following phacoemulsification. We employed the Jaffe method and Cravy method of vector analysis to evaluate the change of Surgically induced astigmatism. The mean surgically induced astigmatism using Jaffe method was 1.24 D and 0.98 D one day after surgery in Group 1 and 2, respectively. The difference between them was statistically significant(p<0.01) and became insignificant(p>0.05) after postoperative one week. In the superior incision cases, the difference using Cravy method was not statistically significant for whole followup period. In the temporal incision cases, the surgically induced astigmatism was 0.39 D and 0.02 D one day after surgery in Group 1 and 2, respectively. The difference was statistically significant(p<0.05) and became statistically insignificant(p>0.05) after postoperative one week. In this study it was found that a distance of incision line from corneal limbus longer than 1 mm was not an important factor in influencing the surgically induced astigmatism one week after sutureless cataract surgery using a watertight scleral tunnel incision.

MeSH Terms

Astigmatism
Cataract*
Follow-Up Studies
Lenses, Intraocular
Limbus Corneae
Phacoemulsification
Polymethyl Methacrylate
Polymethyl Methacrylate