Retinal and choroidal microvasculature is altered after strabismus surgery

To evaluate the retinal and choroidal microvasculature after strabismus surgery using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA).

Thirty-three eyes of 33 patients who underwent horizontal rectus surgery for strabismus were included in this retrospective study. The unoperated fellow eyes were used as the control group. The macular microvasculature was assessed using a 3 × 3 scan pattern centred on the fovea preoperatively, and one week and one month postoperatively. The vessel density (VD) of superficial capillary plexus (SCP), deep capillary plexus (DCP), and choriocapillaris (CC) were automatically analyzed. The foveal avascular zone (FAZ) was calculated manually using the tool of the device.

The VD in SCP demonstrated a significant difference between operated and fellow eyes at one week (p = 0.017). Moreover, a significant increase was observed in the mean VD values in SCP of operated eyes after surgery (p = 0.037). The VD in DCP exhibited no significant differences between operated and fellow eyes before and after strabismus surgery. However, there was a significant difference in VD was observed between operated and fellow eyes one week after surgery (p = 0.001). The mean VD in CC was significantly increased in the operated eyes one week after surgery compared to preoperative values (p = 0.006).

This study revealed that strabismus surgery may cause transient alterations both in retinal and choroidal microcirculation in the early postoperative period.