AIM: To evaluate the effect of incision types for Artisan phakic intraocular lens (PIOL) implantation on ocular higher-order aberrations (HOAs). METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted of the patients who had undergone Artisan PIOL implantation for the correction of myopia and followed up for at least 6mo. Patients are classified into 2 groups considering the incision type: cornea group with patients undergone clear corneal incision; sclera group with patients undergone sclera tunnel incision. All patients with postoperative astigmatism of under 1 diopter (D) were included to minimize the effect of residual astigmatism on postoperative HOAs. Visual acuity, special equivalents, astigmatism, predictability (±1 D from target refraction), HOAs (coma, trefoil, spherical aberration), and corneal endothelial counts were analyzed preoperatively and 6mo postoperatively. RESULTS: At the postoperative 6mo, all patients of both groups achieved uncorrected visual acuity of 16/20 or better, and significantly decreased the spherical equivalents compared with preoperative values. The predictability of refractive correction was 96% in the former, and 94% in the latter. Unlike the sclera group, preoperative astigmatism decreased significantly in cornea group at postoperative 6mo. The HOAs increased significantly at postoperative 6mo compared to the preoperative values in both groups, and the root mean square (RMS) total and trefoil wavefront aberration of cornea group were significantly higher than those of sclera group. CONCLUSION: Although corneal incision significantly reduces preexisting astigmatism, the postoperative 6mo of total RMS and trefoil aberration change may deteriorate the visual quality after Artisan PIOL implantation.