Background: Astigmatism is a major challenge for surgeons. Many measures have been studied to manage astigmatism starting from simple measures such as; contact Lenses, Spectacles. femtosecond LASER-assisted incisions decrease the risk of infection and associated pain. The arcuate relaxing incision (Arcuate keratotomy) provides a fast visual rehabilitation, economic, easy, and a relatively safe procedure for the management of astigmatism.

Subjects and Methods: This prospective study included 40 eyes of patients with different degrees of astigmatism. None of the patients had a history of previous ocular surgery or diseases that would affect the corneal refraction.

 Incisions will be done at 65% to 75% depth, and arc lengths of 60 to 90.

Results: The mean Preoperative BCVA (LogMAR) was 0.56 improved to 0.35. The mean BCVA change (Postoperative - Preoperative) (LogMAR) showed an improvement of 0.21 (LogMAR) “gain of two lines”. The mean Preoperative topographic astigmatism was 4.28 improved to 0.78. The mean Preoperative refractive astigmatism was 3.73 Diopter improved to0.88.

Conclusion and Recommendations: AK is a simple and safe technique to manage astigmatism which involves the creation of relaxing incisions in the corneal stroma. AK have considerable technical limitations, including difficulty in the creation of uniform incisions and a lack of reproducibility and predictability. Recent rise in popularity of the femtosecond laser has led to its application in a variety of corneal procedures. It has proven to be a safe, effective and highly accurate instrument and continues to be studied for other operations because of its ability to produce precise incisions.

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Mahmoud A. Sultan

Assistant lecturer, Dept. of Ophthalmology, Faculty of medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt.