To assess the changes of corneal aberration in the front and rear surface measured by Pentacam® following cataract surgery.

Thirty-two eyes of 30 consecutive patients that underwent phacoemulsification and IOL insertion via 3 mm superotemporal corneoscleral incision were examined. The corneal aberration was measured with Pentacam® (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) at 1 week and 1 month after the surgery, and these postoperative values were compared with values taken before the operation. The data were analyzed from 6 mm pupil size, using Zernike's polynomial expansion.

In anterior corneal aberration, Z (4, -2); secondary astigmatism at 1 week postoperatively and Z (3, -3); the trefoil at 1 month postoperatively changed significantly ( p <0.05). By contrast, in posterior corneal aberration, Z (2, -2), Z (2, 0), Z (2, 2), Z (3, 1), Z (4, -4), and Z (4, -2) changed significantly ( p <0.05). However, there were no significant changes at 1 month postoperatively (Paired t-test).

There were significant changes in posterior corneal aberration compared to anterior corneal aberration at 1 week postoperatively. However, the corneal aberration recovered to the preoperative level at one month after the operation. Presumably, these results might be due to the corneal edema of the incision site, caused by measuring the corneal thickness in the early phase of surgery.