We thank Dr Carifi for his interest in and comments on our article. First, there were 15 eyes (88.2%) requiring an intraocular lens (IOL) of at least 30 diopters in nanophthalmic eyes. They were actually inserted with IOLs of equal to or more than 30 diopters. Secondly, we agree that axial length (AL) measurements in nanophthalmic eyes might be improved by partial coherence interferometry (PCI). Unfortunately, PCI was not available in our hospital. Our study was retrospective in design. Prospective studies of cataract surgery in nanophthalmic eyes using PCI might be valuable, as Dr Carifi suggests. However, a randomized study failed to support that PCI offers superior accuracy of the AL measurements compared with ultrasound biometry. It is also reported that the PCI is limited because of poor laser penetration in eyes with dense cataracts, especially posterior subcapsular opacities. For now, ultrasound biometry is a widely used technique for biometry.

Ultrasound velocities of 1532 ms ⁻¹ for the anterior chamber and vitreous and 1641 ms ⁻¹ for the lens were used. Our ultrasonographic A-scan was gated.