Foveal and perifoveal retinal thickness measured by OCT in diabetic patients after phacoemulsification cataract surgery.

PURPOSE

The aim of the study was to measure the change of the foveal and perifoveal thickness of the retina in diabetic patients after uneventful phacoemulsification and PC-IOL implantation.

METHODS

Retinal thickness values of the foveal and perifoveal (fovea + 3.0 mm, fovea + 6.0 mm) sectors and the minimum values were measured in a prospective study using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 18 eyes of 18 diabetic patients who underwent cataract surgery. Phacoemulsification and "in the bag" implantation of a foldable posterior chamber intraocular lens (PC-IOL) was performed under topical anaesthesia. Data were collected one day before the operation, and postoperatively at 1, 7, 30, and 60 days. Contralateral eyes of each patient served as controls. Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis, and p < 0.05 value was considered significant.

RESULTS

No significant change of the thickness values could be measured one day after surgery. However, a significant increase could be detected on the postoperative 7, 30, and 60 days in the perifoveal 3.0 mm and 6.0 mm sectors either calculated alone or averaged together with the foveal values. The initial (preoperative) average value of 232.7 +/- 3.5 microm (mean +/- SEM, n=144) in the 6.0 mm perifoveal region increased to 246.0 +/- 8.2 microm (mean +/- SEM, n=120, p < 0.05) one week, to 249.9 +/- 5 1 microm (n=112, p < 0.01) one month, and to 249.5_+6.2 pm (n=104, p < 0.01) 2 months after surgery, which proved to be significant.

DISCUSSION

Our results indicate that diabetes did not influence significantly the thickening of the macular regions after uncomplicated cataract surgery. However, the postoperative perifoveal macular thickness change was found to be nonsignificantly higher in the diabetic group compared to the nondiabetic group, which might be attributed to the high sensitivity of the OCT method.