Preliminary study of the association between corneal histocytological changes and surgically induced astigmatism after phacoemulsification

Abstract

AbstractPurpose SIA was one of the factors that influences the desirable refractive outcome, and it was related to the length, type, location, structure of the incision and to the suture closure technique, etc. The aim was to evaluate the association of corneal histocytological changes with surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) after phacoemulsification.Methods The study enrolled 68 cases of cataract patient (68 eyes). Corneal histocytological parameters at corneal incision、central cornea and contralateral incision obtained by confocal microscope through focusing(CMTF) were compared preoperatively and 1 week, 2weeks, 1month, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively. These biometric factors included the endothelial cell density, keratocyte density of posterior stroma layer, and the morphological changes. SIA was calculated by Jaffe's vector analysis.Results 1 From preoperatively to 1 week, 2weeks, 1month, 3 months and 6 months postoperatively, the endothelail cell density was decreased significantly(p＜0.05). 2 The histocytological observations indicated that the morphology changed significantly postoperatively at the corneal incision, including the cell absent area, wave‐like area, dot‐like and mass‐like hyperreflection, stripe‐like absent area, in the endothelial layer, and the keratocyte activation, microfolds, irregular hyporeflective or hyperreflective belt, and a little dot‐like hyperreflection in the posterior stroma layer. 3 The reduction of the endothelail cell density at the cormeal incision at 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month postoperatively, were positively correlated with SIA.Conclusion The reduction of endothelail cell density and the histocytological changes at the corneal incision were associated with SIA.