In a presentation during the Complex Cases session at the annual ESCRS congress in Vienna, Austria, Dr Dušica Pahor (Department of Ophthalmology, University Clinical Centre Maribor, Slovenia Faculty of Medicine, Slovenia) revealed why there is a need to continue studying the recovery of a patient's macular post-cataract surgery.

Dr Pahor

"After 3-months the thickness and volume of the macular region is not the same as before surgery, so further investigation is required," she said. During her presentation on Tuesday morning of the congress, Dr Pahor revealed how she and her colleagues (Drs Nina Knez and Katarina Šiško) came to this conclusion.

The method

"The aim of our prospective study," said Dr Pahor, "was to evaluate long-term macular changes after uncomplicated cataract surgery with a 3-month follow up period."

The study consisted of 27 patients who underwent uneventful phacoemulsification cataract surgery with IOL implantation in one eye. "Our exclusion criteria were standard, that is any patient with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, prior intraocular surgery, ocular trauma, uveitis and any other conditions that could cause or change macular oedema (ME)," she said.

Evaluation of the macular thickness and volume were performed using the Stratus OCT (Carl Zeiss Meditec Ophthalmic Systems Inc., Dublin, California, USA) and measurements were taken 1-day preop and then 1-day, 1-, 3- and 6-months postop. "We used a 'Fast Macular Thickness Map' scan protocol to obtain six macular scans that were 6 mm long and centred on the fovea equally set at 30° apart," explained Dr Pahor. "We imaged nine regions of the macular, the fovea (F), temporal inner macula (TIM), superior inner macula (SIM), nasal inner macula (NIM), inferior inner macula (IIM), temporal outer macula (TOM), superior outer macula (SOM), nasal outer macula (NOM) and inferior outer macula (IOM)." The statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS for Windows 19.0.

Further to this Dr Pahor explained that a complete ophthalmic evaluation was performed on all patients postoperatively. "OCT measurements were taken in the foveal and perifoveal regions 3-months postop and compared with those taken at 1-month post-op," she said.