To study the effect of limbal relaxing incision on pre existing astigmatism in SICS cataract surgery

To assess pre-existing astigmatism and to evaluate the effect of limbal relaxing incision on pre-existing astigmatism postoperatively in patients undergoing SICS cataract surgery.

The study was conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology at Nehru Hospital attached to B.R.D. Medical College, Gorakhpur from period of July 2016 to June 2017.

This study is a comparative observational study. All the surgeries were performed by one surgeon.

patients meeting the inclusion criteria i.e. 1–3 D astigmatism as per keratometric readings.

A total of 90 patients were included in the study. Mean age 58.19 ± 7 years(range 30-70yrs). Mean pre-operative astigmatism of 1.44 ± 0.39D was found in these patients. Data analyzed demonstrated statistically significant reduction in the mean post-operative day 30 astigmatism in the LRI group to 0.54 ± 0.34 D (range: 0 to 2.5) from 1.31 ± 0.38 D (range: 1 to 3 D) preoperatively as compared to control group to 1.19 ± 0.56 D (range: 0 to 2.5) from 1.57 ± 0.37 D (range: 1 to 3 D) preoperatively, p-value 0.0001. There were no intraoperative complications or postoperative subjective complaints in our patients.

Limbal relaxing incisions performed during SICS cataract surgery appear to be effective as well as safe procedure to reduce pre-existing corneal astigmatism.