Abstract
Purpose :
Predicting the visual gain from cataract surgery when the main cause of vision loss is AMD can be difficult and warrants the need for an objective predictor of subjective outcome. ffERG is an objective measure of overall retinal function, hence we wanted to study if ffERG can predict subjective visual outcome using visual function questionnaire.
Methods :
Thirty-one patients with AMD who underwent cataract surgery were included in this study. ffERG was performed binocularly according to ISCEV standards using a Ganzfeld stimulator and DTL fibre electrodes. Vision-related quality of life was measured using the National Eye Institute VFQ-39 before and 4 months after second-eye surgery.
Results :
Mean change in composite VFQ score after cataract surgery was 9.2±11.9. In order to study the predictive ability of ffERG we divided the patients into three groups: VFQ composite changes >10 (n=17); no change (n=8); decrease (n=6). In the dark-adapted ffERG responses we found a significant difference between the three groups in 10.0 b-wave amplitude (p=0.04) and 0.01 b-wave amplitude (p=0.05) and a near significant difference in 3.0 a-wave amplitude (p=0.09). Other dark-adapted responses (3.0 b-wave and 10.0 a-wave) did not show any significant differences between the three groups. The light-adapted responses did not show any significant differences.
Conclusions :
Our data suggest that patients with low dark-adapted responses preoperatively measured on ffERG experience a decrease in subjective vision related quality of life, suggesting that maintained rod function before cataract surgery can be important.
This is a 2020 ARVO Annual Meeting abstract.