Corneal dellen development after strabismus surgery

This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of corneal dellen development, the healing process, and associated factors that affecting the development and healing of corneal dellen formation after strabismus surgery. In this retrospective study, the records of 714 eyes of 1264 patients who underwent limbal approach strabismus surgery between January 2005 and January 2020 were examined and 47 eyes of 44 patients with corneal dellen were included in the study. Demographic features, ophthalmological examination findings, dellen occurrence and healing time, dellen localization, and the type of surgery were obtained from the medical records of the patients. Corneal dellen development rate was found to be 3.7%. A moderate positive correlation was determined between both mean dellen occurrence time (r = 0.387, p = .007), and mean dellen healing time (r = 0.376, p = .014) with age. In patients who underwent monocular two muscle surgery had significantly higher rates of dellen formation compared to patients who underwent single muscle surgery (p˂0.001). Corneal dellen was significantly higher in eyes undergoing single muscle rectus resection surgery than single muscle rectus recession surgery (p < .001). It was observed that corneal dellen developed more frequently after resection surgery, developed earlier in younger patients, and heals later in elderly patients. Therefore, patients can be followed up closely, keeping in mind the development of dellen, especially after resection surgery.