Bullous keratopathy (BK) is known to present with corneal edema and Descemet's folds, which can cause corneal astigmatism. However, no report quantitatively evaluated BK astigmatism by separating it into regular and irregular astigmatism. This study investigated the regular and irregular astigmatism of the anterior and posterior corneal surface with Fourier harmonic analysis and anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Preoperative data from 43 eyes of 41 BK patients who received corneal endothelial transplantation were compared with the data from 43 eyes of 43 subjects without corneal disease. Anterior and posterior cylinder power, central corneal thickness (CCT) and thinnest corneal thickness were significantly greater in BK. With Fourier harmonic analysis, BK eyes were found to have significantly larger anterior and posterior regular astigmatism, asymmetry component and higher-order irregularity. Asymmetry component and higher-order irregularity that accounted for the posterior irregular astigmatism increased as CCT increased in BK. Higher-order irregularity in the posterior cornea also positively correlated with worsening best corrected visual acuity. Subgroup analysis found significant correlations between CCT and posterior higher-order irregularity for intraocular surgery and laser iridotomy, but not Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy. This study has significance in that it revealed the characteristics of the corneal posterior irregular astigmatism of BK.
© 2022. The Author(s).