J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2009 Apr;50(4):518-522. 10.3341/jkos.2009.50.4.518.

Changes of the Corneal Aberration Following Cataract Surgery

• Oh HC
• Lee DJ
• Park WC

• KMID: 2212251
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2009.50.4.518

Abstract

PURPOSE: To assess the changes of corneal aberration in the front and rear surface measured by Pentacam(R) following cataract surgery.
METHODS
Thirty-two eyes of 30 consecutive patients that underwent phacoemulsification and IOL insertion via 3 mm superotemporal corneoscleral incision were examined. The corneal aberration was measured with Pentacam(R) (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) at 1 week and 1 month after the surgery, and these postoperative values were compared with values taken before the operation. The data were analyzed from 6 mm pupil size, using Zernike's polynomial expansion.
RESULTS
In anterior corneal aberration, Z (4, -2); secondary astigmatism at 1 week postoperatively and Z (3, -3); the trefoil at 1 month postoperatively changed significantly (p<0.05). By contrast, in posterior corneal aberration, Z (2, -2), Z (2, 0), Z (2, 2), Z (3, 1), Z (4, -4), and Z (4, -2) changed significantly (p<0.05). However, there were no significant changes at 1 month postoperatively (Paired t-test).
CONCLUSIONS
There were significant changes in posterior corneal aberration compared to anterior corneal aberration at 1 week postoperatively. However, the corneal aberration recovered to the preoperative level at one month after the operation. Presumably, these results might be due to the corneal edema of the incision site, caused by measuring the corneal thickness in the early phase of surgery.

Keyword

Corneal aberration; Pentacam; Phacoemulsification; Zernike polynomial

MeSH Terms

Astigmatism
Cataract
Corneal Edema
Eye
Humans
Lotus
Phacoemulsification
Pupil

Reference

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