Prevalence of Corneal Astigmatism in an NHS Cataract Surgery Practice in Northern Ireland.

PURPOSE: Post-operative corneal astigmatism following cataract surgery can leave the patient with visual impairment. Correcting it at the time of surgery with a toric intraocular lens (TIOL) can give patients a better final visual outcome. The purpose was to determine the prevalence of corneal astigmatism in a cataract population and assess the demand for TIOL.

METHODS: Keratometric data was collected and analyzed for all patients who attended for routine cataract surgery under the care of a single surgeon based in Altnagelvin Area Hospital, Northern Ireland (NI). All patients were included between January 2008 and December 2014. Data was collected retrospectively for this observational study.

RESULTS: There were 2080 consecutive eyes of 1788 patients. The mean corneal astigmatism was 1.09 ± 0.83. Corneal astigmatism was 1.50D or less in 1621 eyes (78%). It was more than 2.00 D in 242 eyes (11.6%), more than 2.50 D in 127 eyes (6.1%), more than 3.00D in 68 eyes (3.27%) and more than 3.50 D in 45 eyes (2.16%).

CONCLUSION: For routine cataract surgery, 41.3% of eyes had more than 1.00 D of corneal astigmatism and 11.6% had more and 2.00D. Females had more astigmatism than males. This shows the potential demand for the TIOL in this population.