This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Simple marking technique allows good alignment of toric IOL
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
ROME — A simple marking technique in which the superior and inferior rectus muscles are used as reference points allows good alignment of toric IOLs, according to one surgeon.
"We know how detrimental just a few degrees of misalignment are with toric IOLs. We also know that when we make our patient sit to draw the marks and then move them to the lying down position, the eye rotates, producing about 4° of misalignment, which means losing 40% of the effect of the astigmatism correction with toric IOLs," Mitchell A. Jackson, MD, said at the annual joint meeting of Ocular Surgery News and the Italian Society of Ophthalmology.
The technique enables the surgeon to draw accurate reference marks directly in the lying down position. By slightly compressing the eye with a surgical instrument along the superior or the inferior vertical rectus muscle, the insertion of muscle can be seen through the conjunctiva.
"We mark the two extremes of the muscle and then the center. We extend this line to the limbus, and there we have our 12 o'clock or 6 o'clock reference marks," Dr. Jackson said.
Using this technique, results of the Alcon AcrySof toric IOL in terms of uncorrected distance visual acuity and residual cylinder at 6 months were better than U.S. Food and Drug Administration study data, in which reference marks were drawn in the upright position, he said.
Follow OSNSuperSite.com
on Twitter.