corneal astigmatism in fuchs’ heterochromic iridocyclitis

purpose: to analyze the results of scanning slit topography (orbscan ii, bausch & lomb) in both eyes of patients with unilateral fuchs’ heterochromic iridocyclitis methods: an intra-subject non-interventional case-control study was conducted on patients with unilateral fuchs’ heterochromic iridocyclitis (fhi). none of the patients had history of ocular surgery. corneal topographic parameters obtained with orbscan ii including simulated keratometry (sim k) values, anterior and posterior surface maximum elevations and central corneal thickness were compared between the two eyes and analyzed statistically. results: thirty patients were enrolled in this study. mean age was 33.3±10.6 years (range: 18 to 58 years). mean sim k astigmatism was 1.65±1.27 diopters in fhi eyes and 0.88±0.52 diopters in fellow eyes (p=0.001). mean axis of astigmatism was 88.75±32 degrees in fhi eyes. mean anterior surface maximum elevation values in fhi and fellow eyes were 11.70±7.00 and 10.60±4.9 µm, respectively (p=0.37). mean posterior surface maximum elevation values in fhi and fellow eyes were 27±12.1 µm and 23±8.1 µm, respectively (p=0.128). conclusion: corneal astigmatism is a common finding in eyes with fhi, and disparity of corneal astigmatism between the two eyes can be added to the diagnostic criteria for the unilateral form of this disease. this finding must be considered during cataract surgery in these patients.