Changes in Irregular Corneal Astigmatism With Age in Eyes With and Without Cataract Surgery

In patients from 50 to 80 years of age who underwent cataract surgery, irregular corneal astigmatism, both the asymmetry and higher-order irregularity components, increased significantly with increasing age, whereas regular astigmatism induces an against-the-rule shift. The higher-order irregularity component persistently increased postoperatively, whereas the asymmetry component did not change significantly.