The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the postoperative corneal astigmatism and uncorrected visual acuity UCVA as well as best corrected visual acuity BCVA between 2 types of clear corneal incisions used in phacoe
mulsification: the superior and on the steepest clear corneal incision.
This study included 40 patients with cataract and mild to moderate corneal astigmatism (0.50 D - 2.00 D) who underwent phacoemulsification with foldable posterior chamber lens (with 3.2mm corneal incision). Patients were randomly divided into two groups: superior clear corneal incision group SCCI (20 eyes) and on the steepest clear corneal incision group OCCI (20 eyes). Measurements included corneal astigmatism by Keratometry, UCVA and BCVA. These Measurements were taken on first day,1 week, 2 weeks,1, 2,3 and 6 months. The mean preoperative corneal astigmatism was (1.24 D ± 0.44),(1.25 D ± 0.44) in superior corneal incision group, and on the steepest corneal incision group, respectively. After 6 months postoperatively, the mean corneal astigmatism was (1.53 D ± 0.49) in SCCI group, (1.03 D± 0.39) in OCCI group, with statistically significant difference (p<0.001).There was statistically significant difference in UCVA. But there was no statistically significant difference in BCVA.
The paper concludes that compared with SCCI, the OCCI could correct some corneal astigmatism
