Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate if axial length, white to white, anterior chamber depth, anterior and posterior curvature of the cornea, un-scrolling times and age of donor graft can be used to predict the need for re-bubble in bilateral DMEK procedures where the first eye needed a re-bubble procedure for edge lift or graft detachment.
Methods :
We retrospectively reviewed 26 patients (52 eyes) that had a standardized bilateral DMEK procedure for Fuchs Dystrophy. These patients needed a re-bubble in the first eye for DMEK graft edge lift or partial detachment. The number of bilateral re-bubbles was recorded. We looked for correlations in tomographic and biometric parameters between bilateral and unilateral re-bubble patients.
Results :
Fifty-two eyes were evaluated. Bilateral re-bubbles (group A) were found in 9 out of 26 patients (34.6%). Group A anterior curvature Km was 43.6D and posterior curvature was -5.9D, while unilateral re-bubbles (Group B) was 41.9D and -5.5D. Group A mean biometric reading for white-to-white was 11.7mm (11.8 Group B), axial length was 22.59mm (24.0mm Group B), and anterior chamber depth was 2.52mm (2.9mm Group B). Group A mean un-scroll time was 3.66 minutes (7.13 minutes Group B), preop CCT was 622.2 µm (628.8 µm Group B), and donor graft age was 66.4 years (63.7 years Group B). The only parameter that met statistical significance is the axial length comparison, p=0.007
Conclusions :
Out of the patients undergoing bilateral DMEK surgeries in which the first surgery resulted in the need for a re-bubble procedure, 34.6% needed a re-bubble in the fellow eye, which is significantly higher (p=0.002) than the overall re-bubble rate of 13.3% for DMEK surgeries completed during the same time frame. Eyes that underwent bilateral re-bubble had on average 1.41 mm shorter axial length than those of the unilateral re-bubble group
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.