[Retinal nerve fiber layer changes after cataract surgery measured by OCT: a pilot study].

PURPOSE: To analyze changes in peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) after cataract surgery.

METHODS

The average RFNL thickness of patients who underwent cataract surgery was measured using the optical coherence tomography (OCT) III Stratus(R) before surgery, the day after and one month later. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 12.0 software. We used paired two tail student's t test for comparisons.

RESULTS

The study group was composed by 74 eyes of 74 patients. The RNFL thickness average was 90.71 microm (SD: 19.93), 88.30 microm (SD: 20.59) and 97.45 microm (SD: 14.30), before cataract surgery (AVGT0), the day after surgery (AVGT1) and one month later (AVGT2) respectively. We did not find statistically significant difference between AVGT0 and AVGT1 (P=0.37); however, statistically significant difference between AVGT1 and AVGT2 (P= 0.002) as well as in the image signal quality between AVGT0 and AVGT2 (P= 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

The RNFL average thickness measured by OCT III Stratus showed an increase one month after cataract surgery. This phenomenon is accompanied with an improvement in signal quality.