Purpose: To compare visual, refractive, and safety outcomes of toric posterior chamber Implantable Collamer Lens (T-ICL) (STAAR Surgical) and toric iris-fixated foldable phakic intraocular lens (IOL) (T-Artiflex; Ophtec BV) implantation for the correction of myopic astigmatism.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 312 eyes of 312 patients who had phakic IOL implantation for myopic astigmatism. Two groups were defined: 205 eyes that underwent T-ICL implantation and 107 eyes that underwent T-Artiflex implantation. Safety, efficacy, and predictability outcomes were evaluated preoperatively and at 12 months postoperatively. Refractive and corneal astigmatic vector analysis were performed using the Alpins method.
Results: One year postoperatively, uncorrected distance visual acuity was 0.05 ± 0.18 (T-ICL) and 0.10 ± 0.16 (T-Artiflex) logMAR, with efficacy indexes of 1.16 ± 0.27 and 1.05 ± 0.31, respectively (P < .001). Safety indexes were 1.28 ± 0.30 and 1.21 ± 0.31, respectively (P = .04). Spherical equivalent was within ±0.50 diopters (D) of emmetropia in 165 (80.5%) and 88 (82.2%) eyes, respectively. Refractive astigmatic analysis showed an index of success of 0.28 ± 0.33 (T-ICL) and 0.31 ± 0.26 (T-Artiflex) (P = .07). Surgically induced corneal astigmatism was 0.48 ± 0.74 and 0.81 ± 0.61 D, respectively (P < .001). Mean endothelial loss was 1.11% and 2.05%, respectively (P = .42). Six (2.9%) eyes in the T-ICL group and 1 (0.9%) eye in the T-Artiflex group had phakic IOL repositioning due to significant misalignment. No vision-threatening complications occurred.
Conclusions: Both the T-ICL and T-Artiflex groups showed high visual and refractive efficacy with a good safety profile for the correction of myopic astigmatism. T-ICL implantation demonstrated significantly better efficacy and safety indexes after 12 months. Vector analysis showed similar refractive astigmatic correction in both groups, but T-Artiflex implantation revealed higher surgically induced corneal astigmatism. [J Refract Surg. 2022;38(6):339-347.].