Irregular astigmatism and contrast visual acuity during early stage after self sealing small incision cataract surgery

We evaluated contrast visual acuity and irregular astigmatism during the early stage after self-sealing small incision cataract surgery in 22 eyes. Three days after surgery, the corrected visual acuity and visual acuity for high contrast chart reached the average values 3 months after surgery. It took 2 weeks for the visual acuity for medium and low contrast chart to reach the average value 3 months after surgery. Irregular corneal astigmatism showed significant increases 3 and 5 days after surgery from preoperative values. It returned to the preoperative value 2 weeks after surgery. There were no differences before and after surgery in regular astigmatism, surface regularity index and surface asymmetry index. The findings show that irregular astigmatism may be a factor in the recovery of visual acuity for medium and low-contrast chart during the early stage after self-sealing small incision cataract surgery.