High-order aberrations of the cornea after DSAEK and their relationship with graft thickness

Session Details

Session Title: Presented Poster Session: Refractive

Venue: Poster Village: Pod 3

First Author: : D.Hipólito Fernandes PORTUGAL

Co Author(s): :    M. Luis   S. Crisostomo   G. Neri Pires   V. Maduro   J. Feijao   N. Alves        

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To evaluate high-order aberrations (HOAs) of the cornea and their relationship with central and peripheral graft thickness after Deep Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK).

Setting:

Ophthalmology Department, Lisbon Central Hospital Centre, Lisbon, Portugal

Methods:

Transversal study which included 12 eyes from 12 patients with a mean follow-up time of 19,52 months after surgical procedure. Mean best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0,81 ± 0,11. Root mean square values (RMS) of total cornea (tHOA), corneal back (cbHOA) and front surface (cfHOA) HOAs were obtained from Pentacam HR in the central 6,00 mm. Coma, spherical aberration and tetrafoil aberrations were also analyzed individually. The Visante OCT system was used to determine central and peripheral (3.0 mm away from corneal centre) graft thickness.

Results:

We found significant correlation between tHOA and cfHOA (r=0,818; p=0,01) and tHOA and cbHOA (r=0,832; p=0,001) but no correlation between cbHOA and cfHOA (r=0,441; p=0,152). Only spherical aberration of cornea front and back surface were significantly correlated (r=0,609; p=0,035). No correlation was found between central (mean 92,27 ± 18,52) or peripheral (mean 126,29 ± 27,16) graft thickness and corneal HOAs.

Conclusions:

The absence of correlation between cbHOA and cfHOA after DSAEK is probably related to the disruption of parallelism between cornea front and back surfaces, as a consequence of an endothelial lamellar procedure. The loss of compensation of anterior HOAs by the posterior cornea could be a reason why some healthy eyes and clear corneas with no evidence of graft failure didn’t reach greater visual acuity. The real impact of graft thickness on HOAs still needs to be better understood.

Financial Disclosure:

None