Astigmatism in cataract surgery MAURICE

We report on our investigation into astigmatism in 40 eyes following a corneal cataract incision closed with a continuous 10/0 nylon monofilament suture (Ethilon). Immediately after surgery there was astigmatism caused by the nylon suture (suture-induced astigmatism), its severity depending on the tightness of the suture. It ranged from 1 to 10 5 dioptres, the mean value 4 09 dioptres with a standard deviation of ±2 5. Removing the nylon suture eliminated this astigmatism and within a few weeks the corneal astigmatism correction in 480% of eyes returned to the preoperative level. In 80% of eyes the difference between the final postoperative corneal astigmatism (4 months after removing the continuous suture) and the preoperative astigmatism was 0-75 dioptres or less and the maximum change was 1-5 dioptres. In 40% of eyes the axis of the cylinder changed from a horizontal to an oblique axis but did not change from a withto against-the-rule axis. The degree of astigmatism remained constant while the suture was in place and in 50% of eyes