Cornea refractive changes after clear cornea phacoemulsification with foldable intraocular lens.

BACKGROUND: Clear cornea incision for phacoemulsification is the current trend of cataract surgery, with the benefits of small incision, quick rehabilitation and stable wound architecture. In our Oriental eyes with small palpebral fissure the cornea curvature is easily affected by the tight lid compression. Evaluation of the postoperative cornea topographic change after this procedure in our patient is thus necessary. METHODS: Forty eyes with simple cataract were enrolled in this study. Among them 22 were right eyes and 18 were left eyes. All of them were through temporal clear cornea incision. A 2.65 mm length incision for phacoemulsification then enlarged to 3.5 mm for foldable intraocular lens implantation. The wound remained self-healing without suture. Color topographies were taken before and then one and three months after surgery. Palpebral fissures were measured before surgery. RESULTS: Induced cornea astigmatism measured as 0.30 +/- 0.35 diopter in the first postoperative month, and 0.50 +/- 0.43 diopter in the third postoperative month. All the induced astigmatism was toward the incision axis and with the rule shifting. CONCLUSIONS: Tolerable with-the-rule astigmatism shifting around 0.5 diopter was noted postoperatively via temporal clear cornea phacoemulsification with foldable intraocular lens implantation in our patients.