Changes in Corneal Thickness Following Vitreous Surgery

1. Shumpei Ogawa
2. Akira Watanabe
3. Astuhito Yaginuma
4. Kenichi Kohzaki
5. Hiroshi Tsuneoka

The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

Purpose: Postoperative corneal thickness measurement is useful in evaluating the degree of corneal endothelial dysfunction due to surgical stress. In this study, the effect of transconjunctival vitrectomy with a small incision on the alteration in corneal thickness was evaluated.

Methods: Thirteen eyes from 13 patients who had undergone 23-gauge transconjunctival vitrectomy at Jikei University Hospital for the treatment of retinal detachment (3 eyes), macular pucker (3 eyes), macular hole (3 eyes), proliferative diabetic retinopathy (2 eyes), and branch retinal vein occlusion (1 eye) were examined. Corneal thickness was measured using PENTACAM® before and 1week, 1 and 3 months after surgery, and the measurement was performed at the center and at points 3 mm superior, inferior, nasal and temporal to the center.

Results & Conclusions : Mean preoperative corneal thickness (μm) was determined to be 571 at the center, 681 superiorly, 650 inferiorly, 654 nasally, and 637 temporally. The respective thickness was 601, 710, 681, 682, and 665 at 1 week after surgery, 573, 680, 653, 656, and 635 at 1 month after surgery, and 572, 678, 654, 656, and 632 at 3 months after surgery. Thus, compared with preoperative measurement, postoperative data at all points showed a significant increase at 1 week after surgery, but recovered to the preoperative level after 1 month. Our results suggest that corneal thickness measurement is useful for assessing the extent of surgical stress following vitrectomy.