To compare the clinical outcome of digital and manual marking for toric intraocular lens (IOL) alignment.

This is a prospective clinical study that included 60 eyes of 60 patients undergoing cataract surgery with coexisting corneal astigmatism more than 1 diopter (D). The eyes were randomly assigned to either digital image guidance using VERION digital marker (Alcon Laboratories, Ft. Worth, TX) or manual slitlamp-assisted preoperative marking using pendulum-attached marker. Tecnis toric IOL (Abbott Medical Optics, Inc, Santa Ana, CA) was implanted in all cases.

The mean postoperative uncorrected distance visual acuity (UCDVA) for the digital-marking group was 0.12 + 0.12 logMAR, and for the manual-marking group was 0.18 + 0.14 logMAR (P = 0.104). The mean deviation from targeted induced astigmatism (TIA) for the first group was 0.10 + 0.08 D and for the second group was 0.20 + 0.14 D (P = 0.001). The mean postoperative toric IOL misalignment measured by the slitlamp was 2.4° + 1.96° for the first group and was 4.33° + 2.72° for the second group (P = 0.003).

Accurate alignment of the toric IOL is important to achieve the desired astigmatism correction. VERION system has the advantage of preoperative planning and intraoperative digital guidance of the toric IOL alignment. The use of VERION system resulted in less postoperative deviation from TIA and showed less postoperative toric IOL misalignment than using manual-marking technique.