Posters

Decreased subbasal nerve density in patients with exfoliation syndrome undergoing cataract surgery

Poster Details

First Author: M.MOCAN TURKEY

Co Author(s):    S. Kocabeyoglu   M. Irkec                 

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To evaluate the corneal microstructure in patients with exfoliation syndrome (XFS) with cataract using in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) and to compare their results with those of healthy subjects.

Setting:

Hacettepe University, School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Ankara, Turkey

Methods:

Twenty-five eyes of 25 patients with XFS and cataract and 25 corneas of age-matched control subjects were included in this study. Patients with a history of previous ocular surgery, ocular surface disease and diabetes mellitus were excluded. Basal epithelial cell, keratocytes and endothelial cell densities as well as the number of sub-basal nerves were evaluated using IVCM (Confoscan 3.0, Vigonza, Italy). T-test and chi-square test was used for statistical analysis. A p value of 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.

Results:

There were no significant differences between the patients and control subjects with respect to age (69.7±4.4 y vs. 69.1±4.5 y; p=0.137) and gender (11M/14F; 12M/13F; p=0.522). The differences in the densities of the basal epithelium (p=0.343), keratocytes of anterior (p=0.406), mid stroma (p=0.427), and endothelium (p=0.067) were not significant across the two groups, whereas posterior keratocyte density was found to be lower in patients with XFS and cataract (p=0.002). Subjects with XFS had lower number of long subbasal nerve fibers (p=0.03), lower total number of subbasal nerves (p<0.001) and more tortuous nerve fibers (p<0.001) as compared to those of controls.

Conclusions:

Patients with XFS scheduled for phacoemulsification surgery demonstrate reduced number of subbasal nerve fibers which may predispose their corneas to delayed corneal epithelial wound healing following cataract surgery.

Financial Disclosure:

NONE