Central retinal thickness assessment in a real life setting after cataract surgery in diabetic patients

To assess in a real life setting the progression of central retinal thickness (CRT) during the first month after surgery in diabetic patients without previous diabetic macular edema (DME) and to identify potential risk factors for DME leading to increased postoperative follow-up.

We conducted a prospective study of diabetic patients without history of DME who underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and SD-OCT were performed 7 days and 1 month after surgery. We assumed absence of preoperative DME when there was no edema of SD-OCT at D7. Our primary endpoint was the central retinal thickness (CRT) variation between 7 days and 1 month after cataract surgery in patients without previous history of DME.

We included 55 eyes of 42 patients. BCVA was 0.57±0.72 logMar (20/80) prior to surgery and increased significantly to 0.11±0.17 (20/25) at one month (P=0.001) post-surgery. The mean baseline CRT was 209±35μm and 229±69μm (P=0.06) one month after surgery. Four eyes (7.4%) developed macular edema at one month. We found no linear correlation between HbA1C and CRT.

We found no link between a high level of HbA1C and postoperative increase in CRT. We found that cataract surgery in diabetic patients without previous DME has no negative impact on CRT, and visual outcomes are good. We suggest that in diabetic patients without complete visual recovery at 1-month post-cataract surgery, OCT examination should be performed in order to detect an early stage of DME.