Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2020)

Method: It was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted at Aziz Fatimah hospital Faisalabad during Oct 2019 to May 2020. A sample size of 80 eyes having cataract, age 41 to 70 years was including in this study. Slit lamp examination was performed to check corneal and conjunctival health. After eye examination astigmatism was measured before and after the cataract surgery by using autorefractometer or by monitoring the keratometry readings

Result: The astigmatism was measured with Keratometer before and after the cataract surgery. Phaco was found to be clinically superior to the ECCE. The means and the standard deviation of phaco post op astigmatism was .7860 ±.48880 and ECCE post op astigmatism was 3.6310±1.96236 which indicated that the degree of astigmatism increases after extra capsular cataract extraction technique. Astigmatism after phacoemulsification was significantly less frequent and a higher proportion achieved an unaided visual acuity.

Conclusion: Phacoemulsification is clinically better than extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE). Corneal astigmatism was almost similar in two groups prior to surgery but after the cataract surgery the astigmatism significantly decreased after phacoemulsification groups at 2 weeks follow-up, the significant level between the posts operatively phaco astigmatism and post operatively ECCE astigmatism is .00 which indicates that the phaco technique is highly significant. None of the eye in phacoemulsification group requires removal of sutures for higher corneal astigmatism. Thus, surgical incision affects the vision and cause astigmatism.