[PREVALENCE OF ASTIGMATISM BEFORE ROUTINE CATARACT SURGERY: COMPARISON BETWEEN BEDOUIN AND JEWISH POPULATION IN SOUTHERN ISRAEL].

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of corneal astigmatism among patients before routine cataract surgery and overall ocular difference between Jewish and Bedouin population in the south of Israel. METHODS: Retrospective research collecting biometric information from IOLMaster (Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Germany) in patients attending cataract surgery at Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel between the years 2015 -2016. RESULTS: Mean corneal astigmatism among all cohorts was 1.20D ± 0.83, with 1.26D ± 0.84 in Bedouins patients vs 1.17D ± 0.82 in Jews patients (p-value=0.08). Corneal astigmatism lower than 0.5D was seen in 20% of the population, 28% of the population had corneal astigmatism above 1.5D and 9% showed corneal astigmatism higher than 2.5D. When comparing axial length and keratometric characteristics between the two populations, Bedouins had shorter axial length (23.41mm± 1.62 vs. 23.67mm ± 1.55, p=0.01), and flatter corneas on both axes (flat - 43.18D ± 1.76 vs. 43.62D ± 1.79, p<0.01); (steep - 44.44D ± 1.84 vs. 44.77D± 1.89, p<0.01). Higher astigmatism was found in men than in women (1.24D vs.1.15D p- value=0.04) of study group. CONCLUSIONS: In our study we found more than 25% of patients had astigmatism more than 1.5D. Patients attending cataract surgery may therefore benefit the use of advanced IOL types and surgical techniques. In addition, a statistically significant difference between the Bedouin and Jewish populations biometric measurements in patients attending cataract surgery found.