Comparison of Post-surgical Astigmatism Induced by Phacoemulsification through 2.75mm Incision on Steep Axis versus Scleral Tunnel Incision

Purpose: to compare post-surgical astigmatism induced by phacoemulsification through 2.75mm clear corneal incision at steep axis versus superior scleral tunnel incision. type of study: quasi-experimental sampling technique: non-randomized consecutive sampling. materials and methods: this quasi-experimental study was performed on 180 eyes of 180 patients of cataract reporting at eye department,cmh,lahore from oct 2011 to july 2012 who had pre-existing corneal astigmatism. they were randomly assigned to two groups: group a,2.75mm clear corneal incision at steep axis group,and group b,the superior scleral tunnel incision group. spss 17 results: induced refractive change caused by corneal incision at steep axis showed an overall improvement in pre-operative astigmatism with minimum level of significance while post-surgical astigmatism induced by scleral tunnel incision was found out to be minimal with a good visual rehabilitation. conclusion: corneal incision at steep axis is an effective technique to reduce pre-operative astigmatism while scleral tunnel technique is suitable in cases where minimal change in pre-operative astigmatism is targeted.