About 60% of patients with normal corneas that undergo cataract surgery have more than 0.75D of corneal astigmatism.[6] Therefore, patients with cataract and corneal opacity have greater corneal astigmatism than the normal population.[7] Consequently, simultaneous penetrating keratoplasty and cataract surgery may be the preferred treatment option in this patient group.[2, 8] However, simultaneous penetrating keratoplasty and cataract surgery may induce more astigmatism than the preoperative condition.[2, 8] Phacoemulsification and IOL implantation in selected cases of coexisting cataract and corneal opacity are safe and can provide suboptimal but long-term vision when penetrating keratoplasty is not an option or there is a high risk of graft failure.[4] Cataract surgery with toric IOL implantation could better improve visual acuity than simultaneous penetrating keratoplasty and cataract surgery when the central cornea is not totally opaque.[3] BCVA improvements after surgery are less likely for more severe opacity indices that involve the pupil, according to the reflectivity signal.[4]
In this study, postoperative UCVA (0.30 ± 0.17) and BCVA (0.22 ± 0.16) were significantly improved compared to preoperative UCVA (1.20 ± 0.34) and BCVA (1.10 ± 0.30) (P<0.05). Ho et al. reported preoperative mean UCVA and BCVA of 20/800 and 20/630, respectively, which significantly improved to 20/200 and 20/160 (P < 0.001) after cataract surgery with monofocal IOL implantation in patients with corneal opacity.[4] In the Ho et al.’s study, the amount of visual acuity improvement was less than that in our study, because astigmatism was not corrected in this study.[4]
Müftüoğlu İK reported that mean preoperative BCVA significantly increased (0.7 ± 0.3 [range: 0.3–1.3] logMAR to 0.1 ± 0.04 [range: 0.05–0.15] logMAR; P<0.05) at a mean of 8.71 ± 64.11 months after cataract surgery with toric IOL implantation in patients with cataract formation and high astigmatism after penetrating keratoplasty.[9] Development of cataract is highly possible after PK because of chronic high-dose steroid use and surgical intervention. Toric IOLs are reported to be an effective modality to correct astigmatism in patients with cataract.[10-12] Additionally, visual acuity improvement was greater in the study by Müftüoğlu İK than in our study, because the corneas in their study were relatively clear after PK compared to those in our study.
In this study, the 2 month postoperative UCVA was 20/32 or better in 19 eyes (61.3%) and 20/25 or better in 7 eyes (22.6%). This indicates that the majority of patients who underwent toric IOL implantation will not need to wear glasses daily. The corrected distance Snellen visual acuity (with spectacles or contact lenses) 12 months postoperatively was 20/32 or better in 82% of eyes in keratoconus patients with toric IOL implantation.[13] In the normal cataract patients that did not have corneal opacity, mean LogMAR UDVA and BDVA were 0.19 ± 0.12 and 0.14 ± 0.10, respectively. In addition, a postoperative UDVA of 20/40 or better was achieved in 92.6% of eyes.[14]
In this study, postoperative residual refractive astigmatism (1.20 ± 0.35 D) was significantly reduced compared to preoperative refractive astigmatism (2.4 ± 0.65 D) (P<0.05). Müftüoğlu İK reported that the mean preoperative corneal keratometric astigmatism was 5.4 ± 0.9 D (range: 4.25–7.00 D) at the corneal plane and 6.3 ± 1.0 D (range: 4.9–8.1 D) at the spectacle plane, and the average manifest refractive astigmatism was 1.5 ± 0.7 D (range: 0.25–2.25 D) at postoperative month 1 after toric IOL implantation in patients that had previously undergone penetrating keratoplasty.[9] Postoperative refractive astigmatism significantly decreased in their study, which was in agreement with the results of our study. In contrast, refractive astigmatism persisted after cataract surgery with monofocal IOL implantation.[4] In normal cataract patients without corneal opacity, mean refractive cylinder decreased significantly from −3.73 ± 1.96 to −1.42 ± 0.88D (𝑝 < 0.001), while keratometric cylinder did not change significantly (𝑝 = 0.44) after toric IOL implantation.[14] The visual and refractive astigmatic outcomes inferior to normal cataract without corneal opacity, but improved even though there was corneal opacity in this study.
In another study, 92.3% cases achieved visual acuity were as good as or better than that preoperatively with correction after monofocal IOL implantation.[4] However, in this study, all cases achieved postoperative visual acuity as good as or better than preoperative one after toric IOL implantation.
In central corneal opacity, phacoemulsification should be performed when the extent of opacity is small enough to improve visual acuity after surgery.[15] In this study, we included patients with peripheral corneal opacity as demonstrated in Figure 10, and large central corneal opacity as in Figure 11. Patient with peripheral corneal opacity had more improved postoperative UCVA and BCVA compared to patient with central corneal opacity, in these cases. Regarding visual outcome, Ho Y. et al. reported that there is no significant correlation between logMAR BCVA and corneal densitometry and OCT grading (P >0.05).[4] However, in this study, the size of corneal opacity covering pupil had significant negative correlation with postoperative UCVA and BCVA (logMAR) (R=0.91 P<0.05 and R=0.92 P<0.05, respectively) (Figure 7). The size of corneal opacity covering pupil had significant positive correlation with and preoperative attempted correction – postoperative corrected astigmatism (D) (R=0.94, P<0.05) (Figure 8). The patients with central corneal opacity had poor visual outcome and astigmatic correction because the opacity occurred in early childhood, the central light cannot passed to the retina properly, and the patients had relatively irregular corneal astigmatism compared to patients with peripheral corneal opacity.”
In this study, achieved correction of astigmatism (preoperative –postoperative refractive astigmatism) was significantly smaller than attempted correction of astigmatism (P<0.05) (Figure 9). The correction of astigmatism using toric IOL was inaccurate compared to normal patients with clear cornea, because corneal opacity might inhibit precise measurement of preoperative total corneal astigmatism.
The corneal astigmatism associated with corneal opacity should not be considered same as regular corneal astigmatism for the selection of toric IOL. Toric IOL can be undercorrected (Figure 9) because of relatively skewed deviation of axis and uneven surface of cornea.
Therefore, we concluded that not the central corneal opacity size, but the size of corneal opacity covering pupil was the major prognostic factor for postoperative visual improvement. Patients with paracentral corneal opacity are the best candidates for cataract surgery to optimize vision.[15] But, if corneal opacity did not cover the whole central pupillary area, good vision can be achieved with cataract surgery and toric IOL implantation.
In the vector analysis, the target astigmatism (TA) was 1.75 ± 0.58 D, and the corrected astigmatism (CA) with toric IOLs was 1.23 ± 0.64 D. The angle of error between the axis of CA and TA was 2.19 ± 1.32 degrees, and the difference of vector (DV) was 0.95 ± 0.67 D. The astigmatism correction index (CA/TA) was 0.70, and the index of success (DV/TA) was 0.54. The astigmatism correction index was not near the ideal of 1, and the index of success was far from the ideal of 0 (Table 3).
In other study of normal corneal patients, the astigmatism correction index was 0.95, but the index of success was 0.44 after toric IOLs implantation.[16]
We hypothesized that this inaccuracy of correction compared to normal patients occurs because of the undercorrection of total corneal astigmatism, irregular corneal surface, and corneal opacity covering central pupillary area.
Despite of inaccurate correction of astigmatism in patients with opacity covering large part of covering pupil, the visual acuity was improved (in the size of opacity covering pupil 2 mm, 0.2 logMAR of uncorrected visual acuity and 0.3 logMAR of best corrected visual acuity in Figure 7)
Therefore, we think it is worthy of implantation toric IOLs in patients with corneal opacity, despite of relatively inaccurate correction compared to normal patients with clear cornea.
This was the first study to evaluate toric IOL implantation outcomes in cataract patients with corneal opacity. The postoperative visual acuity was significantly improved in spite of the previously existing corneal opacity. The postoperative residual refractive astigmatism was also significantly improved. Postoperative UCVA and BCVA were correlated with the percentage of corneal opacity covering pupillary area. Therefore, toric IOL implantation is effective for improving visual acuity in patients with corneal opacity and cataract.
The short duration of follow up (2 month) and lack of control over the monofocal IOL of the subjects were among the limitations of this study. A multicenter clinical trial with a larger sample size and longer follow up period is suggested to observe the long-term efficacy of the toric intraocular lens implantation in cataract patients with corneal opacity.