Limbal relaxing incisions in congenital astigmatism: 6 month follow-up

Abstract

Limbal relaxing incisions are a practical, simple, and forgiving approach for the correction of lower degrees of astigmatism.

Long-term stability of keratometric astigmatism after limbal relaxing incisions

“…The length and number of LRIs were decided based on a modified Gills nomogram. 11 The incisions were created along the steep corneal meridian just within the limbal vessels using a guarded diamond knife set at 600 mm depth. Phacoemulsification and foldable IOL implantation were then performed through a CCI of 2.75 to 3.00 mm.…”

“…6 However, compared with toric IOLs, LRIs were less effective and predictable, 9 especially for correcting astigmatism of more than 2.25 D. 10 At present, the stability of the keratometric correction produced by LRIs is not fully understood. Some studies found the effects of LRIs regress over time, 4,7,9,11,12 while others found the effects to be stable. 5,6,[13][14][15][16] Furthermore, in general, published studies of LRIs in cataract surgery had a mean follow-up of 1 year or less with the exception of 2, which had a mean follow-up of 17 months 4 and 3 years.…”

Long-term refractive stability following combined astigmatic keratotomy and phakoemulsification

“…The mean preoperative keratometric cylinder was 2.46 ± 0.81 D. At 1 month postoperatively, the mean arithmetic reduction in keratometric cylinder was 1.12 ± 0.74 D [35]. In another series, with 6 months follow-up, the same group reported an absolute decrease in mean astigmatism of 0.91 D (44%) in 22 eyes of patients who underwent LRIs for naturally occurring astigmatism [36]. Bayramlar et al studied the effects of LRIs in 37 eyes of 26 patients who had previously undergone cataract surgery.…”

Analysis of an Approach to Astigmatism Correction during Cataract Surgery

“…However, we feel that our refractive results compare favorably to the few other published studies, especially when looking at mean postoperative cylinder. Table 7 shows mean postoperative cylinder and mean reduction in cylinder from published studies of relaxing incisions and toric intraocular lenses [1,2,3,4]. …”

“…Incisional astigmatism surgery has a long track record with many proponents [1,2,3,4]. Adding to this trend is the increasing demand for better refractive results after cataract surgery, so it is a bit surprising that astigmatism surgery is still infrequently performed as part of routine cataract surgery.…”