Abstract
Phacoemulsification is the standard of care in cataract surgery in the developed world, with patients having high expectations regarding visual results. Postoperative dissatisfaction due to negative dysphotopsia (ND) ranges from rare to very frequent; its etiology is unclear, and it affects postoperative satisfaction. Since one of the most frequently used strategies to avoid ND is related to intraocular lens (IOL) haptic orientation, we conducted a prospective interventional study that enrolled 197 patients who underwent standard phacoemulsification. All patients had a one-piece hydrophobic acrylic IOL implanted; in one group, the haptics were placed in any meridional axis except inferotemporal (IT) meridians, and in the other group, the IOL was implanted with the haptics in an IT position. Our results showed no statistically significant differences between groups when analyzing the correlation between the position of IOL haptics and the presence of ND in week one and month one. Also, pupillary diameter showed no statistically significant differences between patients with or without ND. Despite some studies claiming that haptic orientation prevents ND, we found that haptic orientation does not correlate with ND incidence and that ND decreases from day 1 to month 1. Our results support previous findings on the decrease in ND over time and that haptic orientation should not be considered an intraoperative strategy to avoid this unwanted phenomenon.