For a patient with both a pterygium and a visually significant cataract, the best option is usually to do the pterygium surgery first and then let the ocular surface recover for at least a few months. This will give the most accurate biometry and the best post-operative refractive results. But in some cases, like the case shown here, the patient has had a recurrent pterygium and no longer wants to pursue pterygium excision. She wants just to have the cataract surgery and this is a reasonable request since the pterygium is inducing less than 1 diopter of corneal astigmatism, as measure on topography and tomography.
click below to learn how to compensate for the pterygium during cataract surgery:
