Toric Intraocular Lenses in Cataract Surgery

In modern cataract surgery, spectacle freedom is becoming more and more important. Emmetropia can be achieved for patients with myopic or hyperopic refractive errors by selecting the appropriate spherical lens power. However, approximately 20% of patients who undergo cataract surgery have 1.25 diopters (D) of corneal astigmatism or more. (FerrerBlasco, Montes-Mico et al. 2009; Hoffmann and Hutz 2010) Not correcting the astigmatism component at the time of cataract surgery will fail to achieve spectacle independence. In patients with substantial amounts of corneal astigmatism several options exist to correct astigmatism during or after cataract surgery. Limbal relaxing incisions or opposite clear corneal incisions may be performed to reduce astigmatism during cataract surgery. After cataract surgery, laser refractive surgery may be used to correct residual refractive errors, including cylinder errors. However, corneal incision procedures are relatively unpredictable and laser refractive surgery may be associated with complications such as dry eyes, wound healing problems and infections. (Bayramlar, Daglioglu et al. 2003; de Oliveira, Solari et al. 2006; Kato, Toda et al. 2008; Thomas, Brunstetter et al. 2008) Toric IOLs now provide the opportunity to correct corneal astigmatism, offering patients with pre-existing astigmatism optimal distance vision without the use of spectacles or contact lenses with a cylindrical correction. Furthermore, the recent introduction of multifocal toric IOLs offers patient with pre-existent corneal astigmatism the opportunity not only to achieve spectacle independence for distance vision, but also for near and intermediate visual acuities.