Abstract
Purpose :
Controversy still exists as to whether intraocular surgery increases the risk of conversion of Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry-ARMD) disease into Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Wet-ARMD) disease. We performed a retrospective cohort study to identify whether a history of prior intraocular surgery increased the risk of developing Wet-ARMD in our study population.
Methods :
Electronic medical records of 200 patients (383 total eyes), with a diagnosis of ARMD, and who were treated at the BronxCare Ophthalmology Clinic between January of 2014 and May of 2023, were reviewed. Demographic and clinical parameters, most notably age of diagnosis, past ocular history, classification of a patient’s ARMD (e.g. dry/wet, early/intermediate/advanced), and clinical exam findings (e.g. drusen, geographic atrophy, choroidal neovascular membrane [CNVM]), presence of surgically implanted intraocular lens [IOL]), were thoroughly reviewed. Patients’ eyes were first stratified into two groups, with either Dry-ARMD or Wet-ARMD based on their most recent documentation/examination. All eyes in both groups were further stratified into two additional groups, namely positive history of prior intraocular surgery (+S; exposure group), or negative history of prior intraocular surgery (-S; non-exposure group). All patient groups were matched for age. A relative risk ratio (RR) was calculated, and chi-square testing was used to assess whether there was a significant difference between the rate of conversion from Dry-ARMD to Wet-ARMD disease in the exposure versus non-exposure group.
Results :
The relative risk (RR) of converting to Wet-ARMD disease was not significantly different in the exposure (+S) versus non-exposure (-S) group (RR = 1.329, CI [0.8866 to 1.9915], p = 0.1686).
Conclusions :
We conclude that a history of prior intraocular surgery does not significantly increase the rate of conversion from Dry-ARMD to Wet-ARMD disease within our study population.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.