Abstract
Purpose :
Central corneal thickness (CCT) generally increases following cataract surgery in pediatric eyes. We investigated the factors influencing CCT and examined the prevalence of left–right differences in CCT in congenital cataracts.
Methods :
We retrospectively evaluated 39 patients aged 12 years or younger who were diagnosed with congenital cataracts and underwent cataract surgery between 2006 and 2022. For the control group, we assessed CCT in children without ocular disease, except strabismus or amblyopia, comprising 31 patients. Statistical analysis included Dunnett’s test, paired t-test, and chi-squared.
Results :
The mean age for the cataract surgery was 62.5 ± 43.9 (1–143) months. Twenty-three and 16 patients had bilateral and unilateral cataracts, respectively. The control group had a mean age of 73.5 ± 14.0 (51–96) months. The mean CCT before surgery was 536.9 ± 56.1 µm for bilateral cataracts, 548.8 ± 77.4 µm for unilateral cataracts in the operated eye, 545.4 ± 84.1 µm in the fellow eye, and 525.9 ± 31.2 µm in the control group. Significant differences were neither observed between the bilateral cataracts and the control group (p = 0.65, Dunnett’s test) nor between the operated eyes with unilateral cataracts and the control group (p = 0.35, Dunnett’s test). Furthermore, significant difference was not observed between the operated and fellow eyes for unilateral cataracts (p = 0.57, paired t-test). Cataract morphology analysis showed 9 eyes in the anterior group, 25 in the posterior group, 6 in the nuclear group, 7 in the total group, 13 in the other group, and 1 unknown. Compared with the control group using Dunnett’s test, the mean CCT of each group was 521.3 ± 30.5 µm (p = 1.00), 524 ± 58.0 µm (p = 1.00), 538 ± 4.86 µm (p = 0.98), 562.3 ± 77.9 µm (p = 0.26), and 566.6 ± 76.2 µm (p = 0.032), respectively. Significant differences were observed only in the other group. Pre- and postoperative CCT were measured in 20 of the 62 eyes with cataract, with significant differences at 534.5 ± 28.4 and 544.0 ± 35.9 µm, respectively (p = 0.021, paired t-test). Significant difference was not observed in patients with left–right differences, i.e., 4 in the cataract and 4 in the control groups (p = 0.76, chi-squared test).
Conclusions :
The lack of significance between the congenital and control group for preoperative CCT, suggests a potential impact of surgery. Furthermore, our findings indicate that cataract morphology influences CCT.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.