Assessments of tear meniscus height, tear film thickness, and corneal epithelial thickness after deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty.
- Author:
Wen-Jia XIE
1
;
Ye-Sheng XU
1
;
Xia ZHANG
1
;
Yu-Feng YAO
1
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords: Tear meniscus height; Corneal epithelial thickness; Tear film; Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK); High-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT); Keratoconus
- MeSH: Adult; Corneal Transplantation; Cross-Sectional Studies; Epithelium, Corneal/pathology*; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Retrospective Studies; Tears; Tomography, Optical Coherence
- From: Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 2018;19(3):218-226
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE:To assess the lower tear meniscus height (LTMH), central tear film thickness (CTFT), and central corneal epithelial thickness (CCET) after deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK).
METHODS:This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of 20 patients who had DALK in one eye over a three-month period. LTMH, CTFT, and CCET of the operated eyes and the unoperated fellow eyes were measured using high-definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT). Correlations between three OCT assessments and age, time following surgery, graft size, bed size, and the number of residual sutures were analyzed.
RESULTS:Compared to patients with keratoconus, patients with other corneal conditions had significantly higher CCET in the fellow eye (P=0.024). For all patients, CCET in the operated eye was significantly negatively correlated with the number of residual sutures (R=-0.579, P=0.008), and was significantly positively correlated with time following surgery (R=0.636, P=0.003). In the fellow eye, a significant positive correlation was found between age and CCET (R=0.551, P=0.012), and a significant negative correlation between age and CTFT (R=-0.491, P=0.028). LTMH was found to be significantly correlated between operated and fellow eyes (R=0.554, P=0.011). There was no significant correlation between LTMH and age, bed/graft size, time following surgery, or residual sutures (all possible correlations, P>0.05).
CONCLUSIONS:Patients with keratoconus tend to have a thinner central corneal epithelium. Corneal epithelium keeps regenerating over time after DALK. DALK did not induce a significant change in tear volume compared with the fellow eye. Postoperative tear function might depend on an individual's general condition, rather than on age, gender, bed/graft size, time following surgery, or residual sutures.
