Abstract
Cataracts are probably the most common cause of blindness that can be treated and are mostly age – related. As with other surgeries cataract surgery is not without complications. In this study 26 surgical patients and 14 control participants were recruited for corneal and retinal measurements and anterior chamber depth measurements. The purpose of the study was to determine the short term effects cataract surgery had on the anatomy of the eye concentrating on the central corneal thickness (CCT), anterior chamber depth (ACD) and macular thickness (MT). The subjects recruited did not have any known diseases, ocular pathology (other than cataracts) or previous eye surgeries. The mean ages and standard deviations for the surgical patients and controls were 66.81 ± 7.75 and 67.79 ± 7.62 years respectively. The cataract surgery on all the surgical cases was performed at the Optimed Eye Clinic in Alberton, Johannesburg, by a single ophthalmologist (Dr JJ Krouse). Each cataract surgery was performed by means of the phacoemulsification method, via a clear corneal micro incision on the temporal side of the cornea concerned. Various measurements for the purpose of the research were performed using Heidelberg Optic Coherence Tomography (HOCT) and the Oculus Pentacam (OP). Specifically, for each surgical patient their central corneal thickness, anterior chamber depth and macular thickness were measured before cataract surgery was done, directly after surgery, one day post-surgery and three weeks post-surgery. The control subjects were mainly used to investigate the reliability of the two instruments (HOCT and OP) concerned to assist better understanding the measurements obtained with the surgical cases. For controls, test and retest measurements (CCT, ACD and MT) were obtained upon arrival, and again after a period of about 20 minutes. Test and retest measurements were also obtained for the same controls three weeks later.
During analysis of data for the control subjects, Bland-Altman plots were used to determine the repeatability of the two instruments in terms of particularly CCT, ACD and MT and both procedures found to be reliable that is repeatable for measurements of CCT, ACD...
M.Phil. (Optometry)