AIM: To compare the clinical effect between small-incision cataract surgery and phacoemulsification.

METHODS: Totally 93 patients(124 eyes)with age-related cataract who received treatment in Mar 2010 and Feb 2013 were dicided into 2 groups randomly. Forty-two patients(59 eyes)in group small-incision cataract surgery(SICS)were treated by SICS, while other 51 patients(65 eyes)in group Phaco were treated by phacoemulsification. And then, postoperative visual acuity, corneal astigmatism, surgically induced astigmatism(SIA)and intraoperative and postoperative complications were contrasted between groups.

RESULTS: After 1d and 1wk of postoperation, there were 38 eyes(64.4%)and 41 eyes(69.5%)having a better visual acuity of 0.5 in the SICS group, while there were 29 eyes(44.6%)and 32 eyes(49.2%)in the Phaco group. The vision of SICS group was better than that of Phcao group(χ²=4.877, 5.242, P<0.05). On postoperative 1 and 3mo, with acuity of 0.5 or better, eye numbers showed no statistically significant differences between two groups(χ²=0.005, 0.085, P>0.05). The average corneal astigmatism used analysis of repeatedly measuring designing variance: Comparing the corneal astigmatism in intra-groups at different times, it was statistically significant(F=25.624, P<0.05), and had a tendency to decrease with time. However, there was no statistical significance for corneal astigmatism between groups(F=0.986, P>0.05). The coneal astigmatism of each group was higher at 1wk after the surgery than that of preoperation, and the contrast had statistical sigenficence(t=2.906, 2.427, P<0.05). The Phaco group with SIA was lower than the SICS group at 1wk and 1mo after the surgery(t=-4.628, 2.770, P<005). It had no statistical significance in SIA by comparing with the two groups at 3mo after the surgery(t=0.754, P>0.05). There were statistical differences in SIA at different time both by intra-group comparison and group comparison(F=26.37, P<0.05, F=14.29, P<0.05). The comparison of posterior capsule rupture, the postoperative corneal edema and anterior chamber pigment membrane reaction in two groups showed no statistical significance.

CONCLUSION: Our research shows that small-incision cataract surgery and phacoemulsification had similar effect in the treatment of cataract. Phacoemulsification is not the only surgery option for the best treatment effect. Small-incision cataract surgery can be popularized in basic-level hospitals, achieving the effect similar to phacoemulsification.