Measurement of pattern of chorioretinal vessels change by OCTA after SB surgery in patients under circumferential SB

Abstract

The SB (Scleral Buckling) method is a safe technique with a low rate of pre-operative and post-operative complications, while different studies have reported different complications following this procedure. The introduction of OCTA (Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography) allowed us to measure the retinal and choroidal vascular status in healthy and pathological eyes. On the other hand, according to recent studies, SB surgery has significant postoperative complications in addition to therapeutic advantages. Of course, accurate treatment planning, proper technique during surgery, and correct selection of patients based on indications can lead to a significant reduction of these complications. This study aims to measure chorioretinal blood flow by OCTA before and after SB surgery in patients undergoing circumferential SB. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, all SB candidate patients were investigated. Demographic information of patients including age, gender, underlying diseases, and eye diseases were included in the study. All eyes were macula-on. Then, the retinal vascular pattern of patients undergoing circumferential SB surgery was evaluated by OCTA before surgery, one week, one month, and 6 months after surgery. Results: In this study, 30 eyes with RRD (Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment) were examined after considering the study criteria and compared with 30 healthy eyes of the patients. The average age of examined patients was 58.60 ± 6.35 years and 60% of patients were female. The eye with RRD was the right eye in 60% of patients. The average number of breaks was 1.77 ± 0.50. In 70% of patients, retinal detachment spread in one quadrant, and in 30% of patients in two quadrants. In 76.7% of patients, the location of detachment was in the superior hemisphere of the retina, in 13.3% in both hemispheres of the retina, and 10% of the patients in the inferior hemisphere. BCVA (Best Corrected Visual Acuity) values after surgery did not differ between the operated eye and the healthy contralateral eye. Also, the values of IOP (Intraocular Pressure), CCT (Central Corneal Thickness), and AXL (Axial Length) parameters were not statistically significantly different between the two eyes after surgery. At all evaluation times, retinal thickness and vascular density of the fovea, parafovea, and perifovea had statistically significant differences between RRD and healthy eyes.