Photo Credit: Zarina Lukash
The following is a summary of “Femtosecond laser-assisted astigmatic keratotomy versus toric IOL implantation for correcting astigmatism in cataract patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis with trial sequential analysis,” published in the April 2024 issue of Ophthalmology by Yen al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the effectiveness of femtosecond laser-assisted astigmatic keratotomy (FSAK) compared to toric intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in correcting astigmatism during cataract surgery.
They gathered studies from Ovid-Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Scopus, which compared FSAK and toric IOL for astigmatism correction in cataract patients. The postoperative refractive cylinder, correction index, UDVA, and proportion of patients achieving residual refractive cylinder ≤ 1.00 dioptre, TIA, and SIA were assessed. Utilized trial sequential analysis (TSA) to gather conclusive evidence.
The results showed that 9 studies involving 590 participants were examined. Toric IOLs yielded reduced post-op refractive cylinders and improved UDVA compared to FSAK. TSA revealed significant evidence of decreased post-op refractive cylinder with toric IOLs. FSAK exhibited a lower correction index, mean TIA, and SIA than toric IOLs.
Investigators concluded that toric IOLs provided superior outcomes to FSAK for astigmatism correction in cataract surgery, but FSAK remained a viable alternative when toric IOLs were not suitable.
Source: bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2024/04/04/bjo-2024-325195