title: The effect of pterygium surgery on wavefront analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pterygium is a common disorder of the ocular surface. It causes vision impairment -usually irregular type astigmatism- through different mechanisms. In addition, it is believed that surgical excision of the pterygium improves visual problems. The appropriate method to investigate irregular astigmatism is using wavefront analysis. This study was aimed to evaluate wavefront analysis pre and post pterygium surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed on 32 patients who underwent surgical excision of pterygium in January 2012. Data were recorded and compared after pre and postoperative comprehensive ophthalmologic examinations including uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity, Orbscan, wavefront analysis and autorefraction to figure out the effects of surgery on different parameters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comparison of pre and postoperative parameters showed that surgical treatment of the pterygium improves numerous parameters significantly including uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity, spherical and cylinder refractive error, higher order aberration, quadrafoil (Z440), corneal astigmatism and 3 and 5 mm central zone corneal irregularity (all P-values < 0.0001). In addition, it improves vertical coma (P:0.003) and secondary astigmatism (Z420) (P:0.004).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is concluded that surgical excision of the pterygium improves visual acuity, refractive errors and most of the corneal topographic indices and wavefront analysis parameters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Razmjoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad-Hadi
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Vaezi
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peyman
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Nima
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koosha
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alavirad
keywords: Pterygium; irregular astigmatism; pterygium surgery; wavefront aberration; wavefront analysis