A PROSPECTIVE, CONTROLLED-STUDY OF A 9 0-ELASTIC POLYPROPYLENE SUTUREFOR CATARACT-SURGERY - REFRACTIVE RESULTS AND COMPLICATIONS/

A prospective, randomised study was performed on 52 patients undergoin g routine limbal extracapsular cataract surgery to compare the effect of 10/0 nylon and 9/0 elastic polypropylene sutures on post-operative astigmatism. Both the magnitude and the axis of the astigmatism were m easured by keratometry and refraction pre-operatively and at regular i ntervals for 3 months post-operatively. Both groups showed an increase in the magnitude of astigmatism immediately post-operatively. The pol ypropylene group showed a more rapid decrease in astigmatism over the first 7 days and subsequent stabilisation, although the only significa nt (p<0.05) difference in astigmatism between the two groups was at 1 week postoperatively. Both groups showed 'with-the-rule' astigmatism i mmediately post-operatively, although more of the polypropylene group developed 'against-the-rule' astigmatism by the end of the study. Desp ite an early reduction in post-operative astigmatism in the polypropyl ene group, early spectacle prescribing would not be recommended becaus e of the shift in the axis of astigmatism. In addition, the polypropyl ene group had a 4 times greater incidence of iris prolapse compared wi th the nylon group.