Prevalence, distribution and types of corneal astigmatism in cataract surgery patients in Sibenik County.

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence, distribution and types of corneal astigmatism in cataract surgery patients in Sibenik County. In this retrospective study, keratometric data on 392 eyes of 202 patients admitted for senile cataract surgery to Sibenik General Hospital from April until June 2011 were collected and statistically analyzed. The median age of our patients was 77 (range 50 to 92) years; there were 91 (45%) men and 111 (55%) women. The measured keratometric values ranged from 36.00 to 47.00 diopter. The median of measured corneal astigmatism was 0.75 diopter cylinders (DCyl), ranging from 0 to 6.12 DCyl. In 150 (38.3%) study eyes, corneal astigmatism was in the physiological range of 0.50 DCyl or less, in 118 (30.1%) eyes it was > 0.50-1.0 DCyl, and in 124 (31.6%) eyes > 1.0 DCyl. Preoperative corneal astigmatism of 1 DCyl or more has a significant influence on postoperative refractive outcome. This imposes the need to consider a possible option for correction of preoperative astigmatism at the time of cataract surgery.