A Comparative Study of Straight and Frown Incisions in Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery

Background: Age-related cataract is a significant contributor to global blindness, accounting for fifty-one percent of cases. Underserved communities often have challenging cataracts that are hard, which makes the phacoemulsification procedure take a long time, challenging, and susceptible to problems. The objective of this research was to examine the surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) resulting from straight and frown incisions in manual small incision cataract surgery (SICS). Methods: This Prospective, interventional comparative research has been performed on 20 cases of more than fifty years old with hard nuclear cataracts. The cases have been divided into two equal groups: the straight incision group, which includes SICS with scleral straight incisions, and the frown incision group, which includes SICS with scleral frown incisions. Results: The straight incision group exhibited higher mean intraocular pressure values postoperatively compared to their preoperative levels. The range of SIA at one, 4, and 12 weeks postoperatively was insignificantly different between the studied groups. Preoperative and postoperative at 1, 4, and 12 weeks, SIA was insignificantly different between the straight and frown groups. Best corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA) and uncorrected distance visual acuity (UCDVA) in the frown incision cases were higher than that in straight incision cases across all time points. BCDVA at one, a significant difference has been detected between studied groups in four weeks postoperatively (P<0.05). Conclusions: Utilizing the frown incision approach could yield more favorable visual and astigmatism outcomes than the traditional straight incision method.