To evaluate the clinical effect of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) on eyes with anisometropia due to residual astigmatism after cataract surgery.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 11 eyes of 11 patients who had undergone cataract surgery from March 2002 to November 2005. PRK (2 eyes) and LASIK (9 eyes) was performed on 11 eyes with refractive myopic or mixed astigmatism over 1.5D after cataract surgery.

Before laser surgery, the mean astigmatism was 3.23±1.02D and the mean spherical equivalent (SE) was -2.27±1.43D. Six months after laser surgery, the mean SE was 0.66±0.58D and the mean astigmatism was 0.73±0.39D. The changes in mean manifest SE and astigmatism were statistically significant between paired preoperative and postoperative values ( p <0.05). At 6 months after surgery, the mean uncorrected visual acuity and best corrected visual acuity significantly improved to 0.65±0.17 and 0.84±0.11, respectively. Three eyes (27.3%) developed mild haze and were treated without sequelae. There were no other complications.

Excimer laser surgery appears to be a clinically useful procedure to correct residual astigmatism after cataract surgery.