AIM: To explore the effect of radial axial incision on corneal astigmatism after phacoemulsification.

METHODS: Totally 60 cases(62 eyes)of cataract patients were selected from our hospital, divided into Group A and Group B randomly. Two groups were both required to have a corneal incision, while Group A took it in the maximum corneal refractive radial axial and the Group B took it in the traditional temporal side(right eye)or nasal side(left eye). At the same time two groups received phacoemulsification and foldable intralocular lens(IOL)implantation. We measured their date before surgery, after surgery in 1d, 1wk and 1mo respectively with CT200 corneal topography measurement. The date was compared in two groups of corneal astigmatism, surgically induced astigmatism and visual acuity. According to the corneal astigmatism and axial, surgically induced astigmatism was calculated.

RESULTS: Group A and Group B were compared in age, gender, lens nucleus hardness, visual acuity, corneal astigmatism before the surgery, which has no statistically significant differences(P>0.05). Postoperative visual acuity of both groups was higher than preoperative(P<0.05), but the difference was not statistically significant in 1d, 1wk and 1mo after surgery in two groups(P>0.05). Corneal astigmatism was not statistically significant in two groups at 1d after surgery(P>0.05). The corneal astigmatism was significantly less in Group A than that in Group B in 1wk and 1mo after surgery, and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05). After the surgery for 1wk and 1mo, the surgically induced astigmatism of Group B was significantly higher than that of the Group A, with the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: Making clear corneal incision along the maximum curvature of the cornea in cataract surgery can make the corneal astigmatism and the degree of astigmatism less after surgery.