CORNEAL TOPOGRAPHY AFTER CATARACT-SURGERY USING A CLEAR CORNEAL INCISION CLOSED WITH ONE RADIAL SUTURE

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To determine whether corneal topography and visual recovery are affected by suturing a temporal, clear corneal inc ision for cataract surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty-one consecutiv e phacoemulsification patients (39 eyes) had a 3.2-mm incision sutured with one 10-0 nylon, radial suture removed after 1 postoperative week . Visual acuity (VA) and corneal topography, including best fit: spher e (BFS), best fit cylinder (BFC), principle meridian, topographic irre gularity (TI), and vector-corrected astigmatism (VCA), were measured p reoperatively and I day, I week, and 1 month postoperatively. Two-tail ed t tests and Pearson correlations were calculated. RESULTS: From the preoperative measurement to 1 week. postoperatively, VA improved, BFS (P=.005) and TI (P=.033) increased, and VCA shifted with-the-rule. Fr om 1 week to 1 month postoperatively, BFS (P=.012) and TT (P=.002) dec reased. BFC and its direction did not change. Almost all measures were significantly correlated. CONCLUSION: The benefits of sutureless surg ery on corneal topography and visual recovery are not degraded by usin g a suture to prevent wound leakage.