Central corneal thickness changes following manual small incision cataract surgery

Abstract

AimTo determine changes in post-cataract surgery central corneal thickness (CCT) at Lagos University Teaching Hospital by assessing the time it takes for the cornea to return to its preoperative thickness value.MethodsThis study is a prospective, hospital-based open within-patient controlled study with the unoperated eye controlling for the operated one.ResultsTwo hundred patients with 400 eyes were analyzed, with bilateral mature cataract in 47.0%. All the patients had manual small incision cataract surgery with posterior chamber intraocular lens implant. There is an increase in mean baseline CCT from 520.6±20.3 μm by 76.9 μm (597.9±30.4 μm) 24 hours after cataract surgery followed by relative reduction in the mean CCT to 555.2±24.7 μm and 525.1±19.7 μm at 2 weeks and 12 weeks, respectively. Increase in mean CCT in the unoperated and contralateral eyes were recorded in this study.ConclusionThere was a transient increase in corneal thickness following cataract surgery with subsequent decrease to preoperative thickness by 12th and fourth week in the operated and unoperated eyes, respectively. Corneal manipulations during cataract surgery must be minimal to reduce visual rehabilitation time to barest minimum. Postoperative refraction will be better at eighth week to 12th week considering the time it takes for the CCT to return to its stable preoperative values.

Corneal endothelial cell loss and corneal biomechanical characteristics after two‐step sequential or combined phaco‐vitrectomy surgery for idiopathic epiretinal membrane

“…The observed transient increase in CCT with subsequent progressive decrease has previously been described in cataract surgery (Aribaba et al. ), PPV (Watanabe et al. ) and combined surgery (Watanabe et al.…”

Epiretinal membrane surgery: an analysis of sequential or combined surgery on refraction, macular anatomy and corneal endothelium

“…The observed transient increase in CCT with subsequent progressive decrease has previously been described in cataract surgery (Jacob ; Aribaba et al. ), PPV (Watanabe et al. ) and combined surgery (Watanabe et al.…”

Change in Central corneal thickness after Phacoemulsification

“…Changes in the endothelial function depicted by Pachymetry to measure CCT is also discussed by OT Aribaba et al 21 . They showed an increase in mean CCT from 520.6 ± 20.3 μm to 597.9 ± 30.4 μm, 24 hours after cataract surgery followed by relative reduction in the mean CCT to 555.2 ± 24.7 μm and 525.1 ± 19.7 μm at 2 weeks and 12 weeks, respectively.…”