Corneal topographic changes after retinal detachment surgery.

Purpose: To evaluate the changes in corneal topography after scleral buckling surgery for retinal detachment.

Methods: Twenty-one eyes of 21 patients with the diagnosis of retinal detachment were included in this prospective study. Scleral buckling surgery was performed on all patients. The corneal topography of each was measured before surgery and at 1 week and 1 and 6 months after surgery by computer-assisted videokeratoscopy using the EyeSys 2000 Corneal Analysis System. Changes in corneal videokeratographies were analyzed using the Holladay Diagnostic Summary (HDS) software package.

Results: A statistically significant central corneal steepening (average, 1.8 diopter) was noted 1 week after surgery. The total and irregular astigmatic components both revealed a significant but transient increase in the first postoperative month. All these topographic changes persisted for as long as 6 months but returned to preoperative values afterward.

Conclusion: Scleral buckling was found to induce transient changes in corneal topography producing both myopia and corneal astigmatism. Videokeratography is helpful for documenting such corneal changes after scleral buckling surgery for retinal detachment.