Sutured piggyback toric intraocular lenses to correct high astigmatism

Abstract

 

A 74-year-old woman presented for bilateral cataract surgery, which was performed 3 days apart. Corneal astigmatism was 4.25 diopters (D) in the right eye and 4.87 D in the left. After cataract extraction through 6.0 mm scleral incisions, 2 toric, plate-haptic, silicone intraocular lenses (IOLs), each with a 3.50 D cylinder add power (2.30 D at spectacle plane), were sutured together and implanted in the bag. Both eyes had limbal relaxing incisions postoperatively. Four months postoperatively, corneal astigmatism was 4.50 D in the right eye and 4.00 D in the left. Refractive astigmatism was 0.50 D with an uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 in both eyes. No IOL rotation was observed. Suturing toric lenses together allows greater correction of astigmatism without concern about counter rotation of the lenses.