title: Preoperative corneal astigmatism among adult patients with cataract in Northern Nigeria.
abstract: The prevalence and nature of corneal astigmatism among patients with cataract has not been well-documented in the resident African population. This retrospective study was undertaken to investigate preexisting corneal astigmatism in adult patients with cataract. We analyzed keratometric readings acquired by manual Javal-Schiotz keratometry before surgery between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011. There were 3,169 patients (3286 eyes) aged between 16 and 110 years involved with a Male to female ratio of 1.4:1. Mean keratometry in diopters was K1 = 43.99 and K2 = 43.80. Mean corneal astigmatism was 1.16 diopter and a majority (45.92%) of eyes had astigmatism between 1.00 and 1.99 diopters. Two-thirds of the eyes (66.9%) in this study had preoperative corneal astigmatism equal to or above 1.00 diopter. Findings will help local cataract surgeons to estimate the potential demand for toric intraocular lenses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isyaku
authors.forename: Syed A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Sadiq
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hassan