Astigmatism in cataract patients

Most candidates for cataract surgery have a degree of corneal astigmatism, which should be considered by intraocular lens (IOL) manufacturers, concluded a study published in the January issue of the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.

Teresa Ferrer-Blasco, PhD of the University of Valencia, Spain and colleagues gathered preoperative measurements of the refractive and keratometric values of eyes undergoing cataract extraction (n=4540).

The team found that older eyes had a tendency towards less negative corneal astigmatism. Only 13.2% of eyes demonstrated no corneal astigmatism: astigmatism of 0.25–1.25 diopters was present in 64.4% of eyes, and of ≥1.5 D in 22.2% of eyes.

The team concluded that, although the values differed slightly between age groups, corneal astigmatism was present in the majority of cataract surgery candidates, although to a degree of greater than 1.5 D in only approximately one fifth of cases. The researchers recommended that IOL manufacturers and cataract surgeons should consider this information when evaluating the appropriate IOLs for patients.