Corneal dellen development after strabismus surgery

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Surgical Complications
• Corneal Health

Background:

• Corneal dellen are a known, though infrequent, complication following ocular surgery.
• Understanding the factors influencing their development and healing is crucial for patient management.
• Strabismus surgery, particularly involving limbal approaches, presents a specific context for evaluating dellen formation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the incidence of corneal dellen after strabismus surgery.
• To investigate the healing process and identify factors affecting dellen development and resolution.
• To analyze the correlation between patient demographics, surgical techniques, and corneal dellen occurrence.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 714 eyes from 1264 patients undergoing limbal approach strabismus surgery (January 2005 - January 2020).
• Inclusion of 47 eyes diagnosed with corneal dellen.
• Data collection included patient demographics, surgical details (type, muscles involved), dellen occurrence/healing times, and localization.

Main Results:

• The overall incidence of corneal dellen was 3.7%.
• Age showed a moderate positive correlation with both the time to dellen occurrence (r=0.387, p=0.007) and healing time (r=0.376, p=0.014).
• Monocular two-muscle surgery and single-muscle rectus resection surgery were associated with significantly higher rates of dellen formation compared to single-muscle surgery and single-muscle rectus recession surgery, respectively (p<0.001 for both).

Conclusions:

• Corneal dellen formation is more frequent after strabismus surgery involving muscle resection.
• Dellen develop earlier in younger patients and heal more slowly in elderly patients.
• Close patient monitoring is recommended post-strabismus surgery, especially after resection procedures, to manage potential dellen development.