Objective To investigate the long-term therapeutic effect of 2.0 mm and 3.0 mm incision phacoemulsification on age-related cataract patients.

Methods A total of 108 patients (108 eyes) with age-related cataract hospitalized in the Ophthalmology Department of Fengyang County People's Hospital from July 2020 to February 2022 were gathered as the subjects and randomly divided into two groups: a 2.0 mm incision group and a 3.0 mm incision group, with 54 cases (54 eyes in each group). The time and energy required for phacoemulsification, postoperative visual acuity recovery, corneal astigmatism, corneal endothelial cell loss rate and tear film function related parameters were compared between the two groups.

Results One day and one week after operation, the best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of patients in the 2.0 mm incision group was better than that in the 3.0 mm incision group (P ＜ 0.01), and corneal astigmatism in the 2.0 mm incision group was lower than that in the 3.0 mm incision group (P ＜ 0.01). Compared with that before surgery, at 1 day, 1 week after operation, break up time (BUT) in the 2.0 mm incision group was lower than that before surgery, schirmer test-II (ST-II), and score of cornea fluorescein (SCSF) scores were higher than that before surgery, but at the same time point, the tear film function related parameters were excellent and statistically significant compared with the 3.0 mm incision group (P ＜ 0.05).

Conclusion Compared with the 3.0mm incision, the 2.0mm incision performs better in terms of postoperative visual recovery, increased corneal astigmatism, and stable tear film function, making it a safer and more effective surgical method for cataract phacoemulsification.