STUDY OF CORNEAL BIOMECHANICS IN PATIENTS WITH POSTERIOR LAMELLAR KERATOPLASTY

Abstract

Purpose : Biomechanical properties of the cornea used to be calculated by theoretical models. The Ocular Response Analyzer (ORA) is the first device capable of performing a dynamic evaluation of these properties in vivo. Despite previous studies have shown that Corneal Hysteresis (CH) and Corneal Resistance Factor (CRF) decrease in patients that underwent Posterior lamellar Keratoplasty (PLK), no study was found including 12 months follow up in patients with Fuchs dystrophy (FD).
Our Purpose is to describe the trend of CH and CRF in patients with FD during 12 months of follow up after PLK.

Methods : From February 2012 to June 2015, 5 patients with FD who underwent to Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) in Hospital de Clínicas “José de San Martín” were included and biomechanical properties were evaluated at 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery.

Results : Table 1 shows patients measurements.

Conclusions : In our patients with FD, CH and CRF had, compared to reported data in normal subjects, lower values at the first 3 months after surgery and tend to increase by the 12^th month. Only one case decrease values but was the thickest Central Corneal Thickness (CCT) at 3^rd month after surgery and previous studies have shown that CCT might affect biomechanics in normal corneas. It might be important to evaluate patients before surgery takes place to compare previous values to the postop measurements. Further studies will be needed to understand the biomechanical corneal changes that develop after PKL on patients with FD analyzing its evolution over time.

This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.

 

Table 1