Anterior segment optical coherence tomography in the long-term follow-up and detection of glaucoma in Boston type I keratoprosthesis.

Purpose: To evaluate the role of anterior segment (AS) optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a standardized method of imaging Boston type I keratoprosthesis (KPro) after surgery, particularly in the visualization of iris and angle structures.

Design: Prospective case series.

Participants: Twenty patients who underwent KPro implantation in 1 eye.

Methods: Patients underwent AS OCT imaging before surgery. After KPro implantation, patients were imaged using the AS single, dual, and quad scans to obtain transverse images of the eye every 15° over 360°. High-resolution, corneal quad, and anterior chamber scans were also obtained. This imaging protocol allowed juxtaposition and comparison of the same imaging coordinates obtained before surgery and 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery.

Main Outcome Measures: Postoperative visual acuity (VA), glaucoma progression on clinical examination and formal visual field testing, and anatomic angle changes on AS OCT defined by angle closure, peripheral anterior synechiae (PAS), iris-KPro backplate touch, and graft-host interface changes over time.

Results: Mean follow-up was 18.8±3.2 months. The average preoperative VA was 1.9±0.5 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution. After surgery, VA improved to 1.0±0.9 at last follow-up (P = 0.002). Fourteen of 20 patients had glaucoma before surgery. After surgery, 5 of these patients deteriorated clinically and 1 de novo diagnosis of glaucoma was made. On OCT, the average total degrees of angle closure for all patients increased from 158.5±158.9° before surgery to 205.4±154.0° after surgery (P = 0.04). The number of eyes with 360° of PAS increased from 6 of 20 before surgery to 9 of 20 after surgery. Iris-backplate touch was demonstrated in 5 of 20 patients, with an average area of involvement of 24.2±36.2°. Overall, of the 12 of 20 patients with clear signs of anatomic angle narrowing and synechiae progression on imaging, 3 had glaucoma deterioration detected by clinical examination. In the other 9 patients, angle changes on OCT were not accompanied by any detectable clinical signs of glaucomatous deterioration.

Conclusions: Anterior segment OCT can be used to observe anatomic changes after KPro implantation that cannot be detected otherwise. We were unable to demonstrate a correlation between anatomic features and clinical progression.