Corneal astigmatism in cataract surgery patients from Bosnia and Herzegovina

To determine corneal astigmatism prevalence, its correlations with age and symmetry pattern in fellow eyes of patients undergoing cataract surgery.

This is a clinical-based retrospective cross-sectional study. Keratometry measurements of patients undergoing cataract surgery assigned to University Clinical Center Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, between January 2011 and June 2012 were recorded and analyzed retrospectively.

The study consisted of 4080 eyes of 2205 consecutive cataract surgery patients with a mean age of 68.24 years ± 9.25 (SD) (range 32–84 years), and 54.0% of the patients were women. Mean corneal astigmatism was 0.72 ± 0.61 D (range 0–6.5 D). The prevalence of corneal astigmatism 1.0 D or more was in 1291 eyes (31.64%), 1.5 D or more in 736 eyes (18.03%), 2.0 D or more in 396 eyes (9.71%) and 3.0 D or more in 108 eyes (2.65%). There was no significant difference in the magnitude of astigmatism between age groups (p = 0.10), male and female (p = 0.29) or right and left (p = 0.75) eyes. The prevalence and amount of astigmatism increased with age (p < 0.05). Gradual shift from with-the-rule astigmatism toward against-the-rule astigmatism was observed (p = 0.03). Patients with higher amount of astigmatism in one eye are more likely to have significant astigmatism in fellow eye (p < 0.01). Symmetry in pairs of eyes is present in eyes with astigmatism greater than 2.5 D (p < 0.01).

This study provides useful reference data for cataract surgeons and patients from Bosnia and Herzegovina.