The Effect of Ptosis on Cataract Surgical Planning

PURPOSE: To describe a patient complaining of ‘ghosting’ and ‘shadowing’ after bilateral, sequential cataract extraction with toric intraocular lens (IOL) implantation who was found to have significant eyelid ptosis. METHODS: The following is a case report. RESULTS: The patient's complaints arose a few weeks after surgery. By the second postoperative month, the patient's keratometry had changed compared to preoperative measurements. Because of significant ptosis, the patient underwent upper eyelid surgery. Four months later, he was found to have less corneal astigmatism than had been measured prior to cataract surgery. Following 2 stable examinations, a Prevue lens based on Hartmann-Shack wavefront aberrometry was made for each eye, which the patient said significantly improved his quality of vision. Wavefront-guided photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) was performed 6 months after cataract surgery. One year after PRK, the patient's symptoms had disappeared, his uncorrected visual acuity was 20/20 in the right eye and 20/15 in the left, and he was satisfied with his quality of vision. CONCLUSIONS: Bilateral toric IOLs were implanted in this patient based on measurements of corneal astigmatism that changed after cataract surgery and changed further after ptosis repair. This case demonstrates the importance of evaluating eyelid position in cataract surgical planning as ptosis can contribute significantly to corneal astigmatism. Patient education is important in the setting of higher expectations from purchase of premium lens implants.