Central corneal thickness in microphthalmic eyes with or without history of congenital cataract surgery.

PURPOSE

To determine the central corneal thickness (CCT) in microphthalmic aphakic or pseudophakic eyes as well as in microphthalmic eyes without any history of eye surgery.

METHODS

Thirty-two patients with a mean age of 6.41±5.24 years after congenital cataract surgery with absolute microcornea, i.e., horizontal corneal diameter (HCD)<10 mm, or relative microcornea, i.e., HCD 10-11 mm but in the affected eye at least 0.5 mm smaller compared to the fellow eye, formed group A. Thirteen patients of mean age 0.94±1.22 years with absolute or relative microcornea plus another developmental anomaly of an eye without any history of eye surgery formed group B. The patients with corneal edema or scars were excluded. The control group consisted of 124 healthy school-aged children. Horizontal corneal diameter was measured with caliper and CCT with an ultrasound pachymeter. In infants, these measurements were performed under general anesthesia.

RESULTS

In 48 eyes in group A and in 16 eyes in group B, the mean CCT was 635.13±65.35 µm and 642.31±93.07 µm, respectively, which was significantly greater (p<0.0001 and p=0.0018) in comparison with the mean CCT (553.58±33.12 µm) in the control group. Regression curve demonstrated the significant increase of CCT values along with the decrease of HCD in microphthalmic eyes.

CONCLUSIONS

Small corneas in microphthalmic eyes either with or without congenital cataract surgery have significantly higher CCT. The results demonstrate significant negative correlation between horizontal corneal diameter and CCT.