Astigmatism is a common vision problem, but most people don't know what it is. It may accompany nearsightedness or farsightedness and is usually caused by an irregularly shaped cornea (called corneal astigmatism).

In a normal eye, with a round corneal curve, light rays passing through the cornea bend towards the center and focus exactly at one spot on the retina.  With corneal astigmatism, the surface of the cornea has an uneven curvature.  As a result, light rays are not focused at one spot on the retina and your vision becomes distorted.

If you have only a small amount of astigmatism, you may not notice it or have just slightly blurred vision. But sometimes uncorrected astigmatism can give you headaches or eyestrain, and distort or blur your vision at all distances.

Unfortunately, cataract surgery by itself will not correct astigmatism. However, the AcrySof® Toric IOL now makes it possible to treat the cataract and correct the corneal astigmatism at the same time.

Goodbye Cataracts & Astigmatism  |   How Astigmatism Affects Vision
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