The changes of ocular axial length and corneal curvatures after scleral buckling for retinal detachment.

As myopia plays an important role in the pathogenesis of retinal detachment, alterations of refractive components after scleral buckling procedures for retinal detachment may be an important factor for retinal redetachment. To find out the refractive change following retinal detachment surgery, we prospectively followed up the alterations of corneal curvature, and axial components (axial length, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness, and vitreous length) of 44 eyes of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment before and after operations. The procedures consisted of encircling scleral buckling (12 eyes) and segmental scleral buckling (32 eyes). All patients were followed for 6 months postoperatively. The corneal curvatures were measured with a keratometer, the axial length and axial components were measured with an A-scan ultrasonography. The methods and materials used in operation were recorded in detail to correlate with the refractive changes. The corneal curvature showed a trend to flatten early after operation (the 1st week), and gradually reversed to steepening. But, the difference was statistically significant only at the K2 (vertical meridian) in the 1st postoperative week and the K1 (horizontal meridian) in the 4th postoperative week. Lengthening of eyeballs were noted in the encircling group (12 eyes), but only the elongation in the 1st postoperative week was statistically significant. While in segmental buckling group, the axial length of the eyeballs was transiently shortened. The shortening was significant in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th week after operation. The reduction of eyeball's axial length was related to the shortening of vitreous length and shallowing of anterior chamber.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)