Corneal biomechanical properties after DMEK surgery: a pilot study

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: Corneal Biomechanics

Session Date/Time: Sunday 06/09/2015 | 09:30-11:00

Paper Time: 10:40

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 4

First Author: : J.Gros-Otero SPAIN

Co Author(s): :    I. Dapena   J. Martinez   C. Sanchez-Barahona   G. Bolivar   M. Teus  

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To study the corneal biomechanical properties measured by Corvis ST six months after DMEK surgery compared with healthy eyes. Intraocular pressure, pachymetry, first (A1) and second (A2) applanation features (time, velocity and length)and highest concavity features (time, deformation amplitude, peak distance and radius) were obtained from five eyes six months after surgery.

Setting:

Hospital Universitario Príncipe de Asturias, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.

Methods:

This is a cross-sectional pilot study. All eyes were diagnosed of pseudophakic bullous keratopathy and thus candidates for endothelial keratoplasty. DMEK surgery was performed following the standard Melles procedure. Patients with glaucoma and other ocular pathologies were excluded for this study. Six months after the surgery all patients had clear corneas, without corneal edema, and at that time, CCT, GAT tonometry and Corvis ST measurements were taken. The results were compared with 7 CCT and GAT-IOP matched, healthy eyes.

Results:

Five eyes that underwent DMEK surgery were compared against 7 healthy eyes. The mean age was 72.6±3.7 years for the DMEK group and 61.3±1,06 years for the healthy eyes group (p=0.06). Biomechanical features that were found to be different between both groups were first applanation time velocity (0.17±0.03 vs 0.12±0.02, p=0.04), first applanation time length (2.02±0.15 vs 1.76±0.13, p=0.03), second applanation lenght (1.42±0.17 vs 1.82±0.34, p=0.03) and highest concavity deformation amplitude (1.32±0.6 vs 0.92±0.05, p=0.04).

Conclusions:

The results from our pilot study suggest a different corneal biomechanical behavior in DMEK corneas as compared with healthy.

Financial Interest:

NONE