Comparison of femtosecond laser versus surgeon-induced astigmatism during the creation of clear corneal incisions for cataract surgery

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: FLACS

Session Date/Time: Monday 07/09/2015 | 15:00-16:30

Paper Time: 15:10

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 1

First Author: : V.Diakonis USA

Co Author(s): :    N. Yesilirmak   F. Cabot   G. Kounis   D. Warren   S. Yoo   K. Donaldson

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To assess the surgically induced corneal astigmatism (SIA) introduced by femtosecond-assisted clear corneal incisions (CCI) for cataract extraction and to compare it with SIA of manually created CCI.

Setting:

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.

Methods:

This prospective comparative study, included 72 eyes of 68 patients, aged 69.0 ± 9.87 years (range, 36 – 90 years) undergoing cataract extraction. Thirty-six eyes received femtosecond-assisted CCIs (group 1) and 36 received manual CCIs (group 2). The surgical plan included one primary and one secondary port; the sites of the incisions were the same in both groups and were diametrically opposed between the right and left eyes undergoing surgery. SIA was assessed using the pre- and one month post- operative keratometric values, which were obtained from corneal topography examination. Multivariete vector analysis was performed to assess astogmatism.

Results:

Mean preoperative topographic corneal astigmatism was -1.19±0.68 Diopters (D) (range, 0 to 2.50 D) and -0.92±0.63 D (range, 0.10 to 2.45 D) for groups 1 and 2, respectively; while, one month after cataract surgery it was -1.16±0.63 D (range, 0.20 to 2.57 D) and -0.95±0.64 D (range, 0.21 to 2.37 D) for groups 1 and 2, respectively. Multivariate vector analysis, revealed no statistical significant difference between the two groups for preoperative astigmatism, postoperative astigmatism and surgically induced astigmatism (p>0.05 for all comparisons between group 1 and group 2).

Conclusions:

Femtosecond-assisted and manual CCIs for cataract surgery do not seem to significantly alter corneal astigmatism, while they demonstrate comparable SIA.

Financial Interest:

NONE