Purpose: To investigate hemodynamic changes in retinal and choroidal vasculature after surgical inferior oblique (IO) weakening through optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).
Methods: The medical records of patients who underwent unilateral IO-weakening surgery at a single institution were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who had OCTA measurements before surgery and on postoperative days 7 and 30 were included. Vessel density was determined for the superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), the choriocapillaris (CCP) and the foveal avascular zone (FAZ).
Results: The study included 72 eyes of 36 patients. Fellow eyes were used as a control group. The preoperative and postoperative week 1 and month 1 mean central vessel densities of the SCP were 20.48% ± 3.52%, 20.68% ± 3.83%, and 23.56% ± 5.65%, respectively, in the operated eye; those of the DCP were 16.72% ± 3.33%, 16.08% ± 4.65%, and 20.85% ± 7.09%, respectively. The mean FAZ areas were 341.29 ± 88.04 μm2, 341.30 ± 98.25 μm2, and 316.02 ± 74.61 μm2, respectively. We detected no significant changes in SCP, DCP, and FAZ in the postoperative period. The mean central vessel density of the CCP increased significantly from the preoperative level of 54.06% ± 2.86% to 55.55% ± 2.63% at postoperative week 1, but there was no significant difference between baseline and postoperative month 1 (P = 0.001 and P = 0.515, resp.).
Conclusions: IO muscle surgery does not seem to cause alterations in retinal hemodynamics, although it can transiently increase the central vessel density of the CCP during the early postoperative period.
Copyright © 2021 American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.