Optical coherence tomography in patients undergoing cataract surgery

ABSTRACTPurpose:To assess the ability of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) to diagnose macular changes pre- and post-cataract surgery and to identify changes in central foveal thickness (CFT) relative to age, sex, and presence of concomitant ophthalmic pathologies, for a period of 6 months post-surgery.Methods:A prospective study of patients evaluated by SD-OCT within 5 h before surgery at 7, 30, 60, 90, and 180 days post-op, with respect to CFT and presence of maculopathy.Results:Ninety-eight eyes of 98 patients were evaluated, with the following mean results: age = 71.4 years, pre-op VA = 0.27 logMAR, and final VA = 0.73 logMAR. There were 21 eyes in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and 10 eyes with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), three with epiretinal membrane, and four with glaucoma. Sixty eyes had no other ophthalmic-related pathologies (NOO), and had a mean pre-op CFT of 222 μm, which progressively increased up to the 60thday post-op, reaching a mean of 227.2 μm. No pseudophakic cystoid macular edema was observed. The mean CFT was statistically significantly different (p