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.

[Page updated November 2007]

Contact Lenses

LASIK & Vision Surgery

Eyeglasses

Sunglasses

Eye Exams

Problems & Diseases

  Cataracts

  Glaucoma

  Macular Degeneration

  Other Diseases

Vision Insurance

Low Vision

Computer Vision

Sports Vision

Nutrition & Eyes

Buy Smarter

Vision Over 40

Vision Over 60

Children's Vision

Teens

Resources

Home

 

Reproduction of any images or text from this website is prohibited by copyright law. Please read our copyright infringement policy.

Link Colors: Green = glossary terms, Blue = other pages
 
All About Vision is a registered service mark of Access Media Group LLC.
Copyright 2000-2008 Access Media Group LLC.

This website is accredited by Health On the Net Foundation. Click to verify.

We comply with the
HONcode standard for
trustworthy health
information:
verify here.