Astigmatism

Astigmatism is an overall inability of the eye to focus clearly at any distance because of uneven curvatures of the cornea. Instead of having uniform curvatures in all meridians, astigmatic corneas have more curvature in one meridian than the others. Corneas with pronounced astigmatism are shaped more like a football than a well-rounded basketball.

Every cornea has some degree of astigmatism. Fortunately, for many individuals, the distortion due to uneven curvature is so slight that it has little impact upon vision. However, as the degree of astigmatism increases, the level of distortion increases proportionately. Astigmatism often occurs in conjunction with nearsightedness and farsightedness.