Retinal nerve fiber layer, minimal rim width, and macular thickness changes after femtosecond laser-assisted lens surgery

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: FLACS

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 1

First Author: : J.Reñones SPAIN

Co Author(s): :    B. Estevez   H. Carreras   J. Gonzalez   V. Rodriguez   J. Loro   A. Anton        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To evaluate the effect of femtosecond laser-assisted lens surgery (cataract surgery or clear lens extraction) on the structure of the optic nerve head and the macula.

Setting:

Eurocanarias Oftalmológica, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

Methods:

This prospective longitudinal study included patients undergoing femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery or femtosecond laser-assisted clear lens extraction using a LenSx platform (Alcon LenSx Inc). Retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), Bruch´s membrane opening - minimal rim width (MRW) and macular thickness (MT) were measured preoperatively, one month and six months after surgery using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Changes were evaluated and statistical analysis was performed using R Core Team (2016).

Results:

87 eyes of 46 patients were included. Mean (±SD) preoperative RNFL, BMO-MRW and MT were 100.77 (±10.39), 330.31 (±49.99) and 276.30 (±33.39), respectively. Mean (±SD) postoperative RNFL, BMO-MRW and MT were 104.74 (±11.55), 348.32 (±54.05) and 279.83 (±22.65) one month after surgery (1M-postop) and 102.93 (±11.17), 343.11 (±53.4) and 278.90 (±22.19) six months after surgery (6M-postop), respectively; which equals an increase of 3.93%, 5.45% and 1.27%, respectively, 1M-postop, and 2.14%, 3.87% and 0.94% 6M-postop. The differences between preoperative and postoperative RNFL and BMO-MRW values were statistically significant (p<0.001). Regarding MT values, these differences were not statistically significant (p=0.26).

Conclusions:

Our study suggests that femtosecond laser-assisted lens surgery does not have a negative impact on the structural status of the optic nerve head, assessed by SD-OCT. There was a slight but statistically significant increase in the values of RNFL and MRW one month and six months after surgery. There was no statistically significant change in MT values.

Financial Disclosure:

None