Abstract
Purpose:
To determine if a scleral buckle (SB) surgically secured permanently around the circumference of the sclera to repair retinal detachment (RD) is associated with a difference in choroidal thickness in the operated eye relative to the contralateral eye.
Methods:
This prospective, observational study enrolled patients who have had unilateral SB placed to repair RD and performed choroidal thickness measurements of the operated eye relative to the contralateral normal eye. Study enrollment criteria excluded subjects with other concurrent eye pathology in either eye that may alter choroidal thickness including any other retinal or choroidal vascular disease, macular disease, uveitis, or myopia > 5 diopters. At enrollment axial length measurement was obtained of both eyes. Enhanced depth imaging SD-OCT imaging (Spectralis) of the macula of both eyes was obtained-- the choroid thickness was measured manually at the subfoveal choroid perpendicular to the choroid-retina plane. The choroidal thickness of the operated eye was analyzed as % of the choroidal thickness of the contralateral normal eye for each measurement. Paired t-test was performed to determine significance of difference in choroid thickness between the two eyes.<br />
Results:
Among the 7 subjects enrolled, SB surgery was performed > 6 months prior to OCT imaging (mean 6.75 + 10.4 years, range 0.5 to 28 years). Axial length of the scleral buckle eye was consistently longer than the contralateral normal eye but the difference was < 1 mm in all cases (range 0.2mm to 1.0mm). The choroidal thickness of the SB operated eye relative to the contralateral normal eye ranged from 48% to 101% (mean 80.4% + 18.4%, 99.5% Confidence interval of 60.9% and 99.9%). Paired t-test showed that the subfoveal choroidal thickness of the SB operated eye was significantly thinner than the contralateral eye (p<0.05). <br /> <br />
Conclusions:
In this small exploratory study, a lower choroidal thickness was noted in most eyes with SB relative to the contralateral normal eye. However, since the axial length was consistently longer in the SB eye relative to the contralateral eye, the difference in choroidal thickness could not be purely attributed to the SB placement in this retrospective study. A larger prospective study is on-going to further characterize this observation and to improve our understanding of the possible clinical implications of this observation.