Minimizing surgically induced astigmatism in non-phaco manual small incision cataract surgery by U-shaped modification of scleral incision

PURPOSE: To evaluate the amount and type of surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) in manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS) with a 4.5 mm U-shaped scleral incision. METHODS: A prospective cross-sectional study was done on a total of 61 patients above 40 years of age with senile cataract. All patients underwent complete examination including preoperative uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), refraction, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and keratometry using a manual keratometer (Bausch and Lomb). All 61 patients underwent manual SICS with a 4.5 mm U-shaped scleral incision within the astigmatic neutral incisional funnel. Patients were thoroughly examined on immediate postoperative day 1 and findings of UCVA, BCVA, refraction, and keratometry were noted at the end of the 1(st) week, 4(th) week, and 6(th) week follow-up visits. SIA was calculated for all the follow-ups using the SIA calculator version 2.1, a free software program. The changes in the amount and type of postoperative SIA were tested for statistical significance using Fischer's exact test. Variance was tested using intraclass score effect. The threshold for statistical significance was set to P < 0.001. RESULTS: Postoperatively, the average SIA was 0.43 ± 0.13 D at the end of 1(st) week, 0.29 ± 0.20 D at the end of the 4(th) week, and remained the same 0.29 ± 0.21 D at the end of 6(th) week. The type of astigmatism shifted more towards against-the-rule (ATR) type in 45.9% of cases during the final postoperative follow-up. CONCLUSION: In our study, we conclude that the incision within the funnel of astigmatic neutralization is one of the major determinants of SIA in manual SICS. We were able to achieve phacocomparable SIA in our study mainly because of our type of incision.