The Relationship Between Intraocular Pressure And Central Corneal Thickness After Routine Cataract Surgery

To determine the significance of any relationship between intraocular pressure (IOP) and central corneal thickness (CCT) in cases that underwent uneventful routine phacoemulsification in patients with clear unremarkable corneas.

Kyiv City Clinical Ophthalmological Hospital “Eye Microsurgery Center”, Ukraine

Intraocular pressure (mmHg) was assessed using pneumotonometer  (Tomey FT-1000, Tomey Corp.) and central corneal thickness (μm) was estimated using Orbscan II (Bausch&Lomb Co., Ltd) at preop and at 1day, 2, 4, 6 & 8 weeks postop following routine unremarkable phacoemulsification with nontoric IOL implantation. All surgeries were performed under topical anaesthesia (2.2mm incision at 12o’clock), postop injection of dexamethasone (subconjunctival) and betamethasone (parabulbar), topical levofloxacin, oftan-dexamethason, indomethacin, dexpanthenol, trehalose and hyaluronic acid.

Only data from the treated eye (right eyes in bilateral cases) were harvested for analysis. A significant correlation was not revealed between CCT & IOP at preop (n=68) or at 1 day postop. Significant correlations (p<0.05) were found for those cases that attended at 2, 4, 6 & 8 weeks and described as follows, at

• 2 weeks, IOP = 0.03CCT + 0.59 (r=0.434, n=47)
• 4 weeks, IOP = 0.04CCT – 7.09 (r=0.366, n=47)
• 6 weeks, IOP = 0.06CCT – 19.00 (r=0.716, n=28)

8 weeks, IOP = 0.07CCT – 25.07 (r=0.711, n=17)

A link between measured intraocular pressure and central corneal thickness was detected on four occasions but not at preop stage or 1 day postop. The numerical indices describing the links between IOP and CCT do not appear to remain constant in uncomplicated pseudophakic cases.