AIM:To evaluate the effect of surgical experience on surgically-induced astigmatism(SIA)in patients with uncomplicated phacoemulsification surgery.

METHODS:Fifty-three eyes of fifty patients, mean age 64.5±10.8y, were randomly divided into two groups(23 eyes and 30 eyes). First group was underwent surgery by cataract specialists and the second was by residents. At baseline all the patients were underwent a complete opthalmological examination including keratometry and autorefractometer measurements. Vector analysis programme including the Alpins' method was used for the calculation of SIA. All the measurements were repeated postoperative first day, first month and second month and changes were recorded. Shapiro Wilk and Mann-Whitney tests were applied for determining the statistical differences between the SIA with two groups.

RESULTS:There were no significant differences in demographic data of the groups. Intergroup analysis showed, first group was more effective results in SIA postoperative first day(P=0.002), first month(P=0.004)and the second month(P=0.001). For the first group, SIA were 0.79±0.41 diopter(D)at the first postoperative day, 0.54±0.41 D at the first postoperative month and 0.47±0.37 D at the second postoperative month. Second one was 1.27±0.66 D, 0.98±0.56 D and 0.94±0.54 D, respectively.

CONCLUSION:According to the results, surgical experience was one of the factors that affects SIA. Residents would perform more phacoemilcification surgery to obtain more surgical experience.