History and Objectives: Astigmatism is one of eye diseases, which its correction specially in severe astigmatism may not be corrected with eyeglasses. The present study is designed to investigate the effect of arcuate incision on the correction of astigmatism among patients referred to the Labafi-Nejad hospital in 1996 to 1997.

Materials and Methods: An experimental study was carried out to compare before and after the surgery on 24 patients. In order to correct the astigmatism, arcuate incisions were made for 30 to 90 degrees. The distance between the incisions from the center of retina was 7mm. Patients were followed seven months after the surgery, effect of operation on the patient’s corrected vision and uncorrected vision, extent of astigmatism were determined and McNemar and paired student t-test analytical methods were carried out.

Results: The study was performed on 24 patients (38 eyes) with mean age of 30±8.5 years and extent of astigmatism of 3.76±1.06 diopter. Patients were followed for 15.5±3.5 months. Surgery resulted in vision acuteness of more than 20/40 in 80% of the patients (P<0.001). Rate of astigmatism was reduced by 47% (P<0.001).

Conclusion: Surgery with arcuate incision was very effective in reducing astigmatism. It can improve patient’s vision without any need for eyeglasses. In patients with severe astigmatism where the use of eyeglasses is not useful in providing improvement of vision, arcuate incision can be very effective in improving vision. Further research is required to obtain complete results.