Can Epithelial Mapping Be A Surrogate Marker To Predict Refractive Surgery Outcomes?
Published 2024 - 42nd Congress of the ESCRS
Reference: PP15.13 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/41p6-yw72
Authors: Vibha Singh* 1 , Rohit Shetty 1 , Pooja Khamar 1 , Anushree Bhatkal 1
1Refractive,Narayana Nethralaya,Bangalore,India
Purpose
Our study aimed to assess the preoperative epithelial status and its impact on post-refractive surgery (RS) outcomes using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Setting
Tertiary Eye Centre, India.
Methods
Five hundred patients scheduled for RS underwent routine pre and post-operative testing, including epithelial imaging on MS39 (CSO, Italy). They were divided into two groups: 337 patients with regular epithelium pre-RS (Group 1) and 163 patients with irregular/thickened epithelium pre-RS (Group 2). Post-surgery, subjective visual quality was assessed using the VFQ-25 questionnaire, and Higher Order Aberrations (HOAs) from the epithelium were compared. AI was used to determine predictive factors for surgical outcomes.
Results
Both groups showed a similar improvement in the UCVA. Three hundred twenty-four out of 337 in Group 1 had good QOV (VFQ score <80), and 97 out of 163 in Group 2 had poor QOV (VFQ > 120). Epithelial and corneal HOAs were normal in Group 1 but significantly elevated in Group 2 (p < 0.05). AI suggested pre-op epithelium irregularity strongly predicts surgical outcomes.
Conclusions
Epithelial regularity can be used as a surrogate marker for assessing the ocular surface health status and is thus a valuable tool for predicting post-refractive surgery outcomes.