Frequency and type of astigmatism and ocular complications of associated diseases in patients undergoing cataract in patients reffered to Ardabil Noor surgery center within a year of the March 2018 till March 2019

Background and objective: The goal of cataract surgery was to obtain the best post-operative results and to re-establish eye vision; Astigmatism and ocular comorbidities are factors that have a significant impact on visual acuity after surgery. The present study was conducted to determine the frequency and type of astigmatism and ocular complications of associated diseases in patients undergoing cataract in patients reffered to Ardabil Noor surgery center within a year of the March 2018 till March 2019. Methods: The study was a case series in which all patients scheduled for cataract surgery at Ardabil Noor surgery center, within a year of the March 2018 till March 2019, prospectively were included in the study using census sampling method. In all patients, preoperative examinations including ophthalmologic examination, slit lamp examination, tonometry, visual acuity and funduscopy were performed by dilated pupils. Demographic and keratometric values were collected before surgery using Auto Refractokeratometer. Finally, the collected data was entered into SPSS software version 25 and analyzed. Results: A total of 1018 eyes of 780 patients were considered. The mean age of the patients was 65.88 ± 11.43 years and 445 (57.1%) of them were female. The mean keratometry of steep and flat axises were 44.75 ± 1.86 D and 44.82 ± 1.69 D, respectively. Women had significantly steeper corneas. Based on LOCS III system, the types of cataracts were as follows: Posterior subcapsular 37.4%, nuclear 28%, cortical 1%, and mixed 33.6%. Types of astigmatism were as follows: 34.7% with-the-rule (WTR), 29.3% against-the-rule (ATR), and 35.3% oblique. There was a significant relationship between the type of astigmatism with gender and age group (P <0.001) so that the prevalence of WTR and oblique was higher among women and the prevalence of ATR was higher among men and the prevalence of WTR was higher among lower age groups while the prevalence of ATR was higher among older age groups. 70.8% of the eyes have astigmatism of at least 0.5 diopters, 33.6% have astigmatism of at least 1 diopter, 16.2% have astigmatism of at least 1.5 diopters, and 9.2% have astigmatism of at least 2 diopters. 32.3% of the patients had at least one ocular comorbidity that the most common ones were as follows: pseudoexfoliation syndrome (8.2%), diabetic retinopathy (6.8%), and glaucoma (4.2%). Conclusion: This study that was performed on a sample of patients undergoing cataract surgery in Ardabil showed that there is a significant prevalence of corneal astigmatism > 1.00 D and preoperative ocular comorbidities among these patients. These findings highlight the importance of preoperatively management of ocular comorbidities and simultaneously correcting of astigmatism during cataract surgery in order to achieve better vision outcomes in these patients