Prevalence and Age-Related Changes of Corneal Astigmatism in Patients Undergoing Cataract Surgery in Northern China

PURPOSE: To examine the magnitude, orientation, and age-related changes of corneal astigmatism of the eyes before cataract surgery. Setting. Hebei Eye Hospital, Hebei, China. DESIGN: A clinical-based retrospective study. RESULTS: The study consisted of 5662 eyes of 5662 consecutive cataract surgery patients with a mean age of 68.26 ± 10.39 (mean ± standard deviation (SD)) years (range 40 to 97 years), and 59.86% of the patients were women. Mean corneal astigmatism was 0.98 ± 0.76 diopter (D) (range 0.00–9.61 D). Corneal astigmatism of 0.50–0.99 D was the most common range of values (30.08%), followed by 1.00–1.49 D (22.15%), ≤0.50 D (21.21%), and 1.50–1.99 D (10.28%). There was a strong U-shaped relation between corneal astigmatism and age (p for nonlinearity <.01). With the increase of age, the astigmatism axis gradually changes from with-the-rule (WTR) to against-the-rule (ATR). Moreover, in young patients with age below 65 years, WTR astigmatism was negatively correlated with age, while ATR was positively correlated with age (r = −0.11, p=.001; r = 0.10, p=.010, respectively). However, in the old patients with age above and equal to 65 years, all types of astigmatism were positively correlated with age. CONCLUSION: This study may provide valuable and practical information to surgeons when selecting the appropriate surgical method and toric intraocular lens (IOLs).