Study finds interocular axial length growth differs after pediatric IOL implantation

Implanting IOLs in pediatric eyes after cataract surgery affects the difference in interocular axial length, according to a study.

Rupal H. Trivedi and M. Edward Wilson, Jr., at the Storm Eye Institute, retrospectively reviewed the charts of 79 pediatric patients who underwent uncomplicated phaco followed by IOL implantation to determine whether interocular axial length differences decrease after the surgery.

The sought to determine if the axial length of the operated eye tries to match that of the fellow eye.

Operated eyes with longer axial length than the fellow eye demonstrated slower rate of growth following surgery, while those with shorter axial length than the fellow eye showed accelerated growth, the study found.

The findings suggest that interocular axial length differences may be an additional covariate when determining IOL power, according to a study.

Interocular axial length difference was calculated as the axial length of the study eye minus the axial length of the fellow eye. The average age was 3.8 years at the time of surgery and 4.2 years at follow-up.

In the group with shorter axial lengths (49 patients), interocular axial length differences did not change significantly postoperatively. In the group with longer axial lengths in the study eye, the change was significant (0.86 mm before surgery compared with 0.54 mm after). In the second group, monocular cataract eyes had significantly higher interocular axial length differences postoperatively when compared with binocular cataract eyes.

The study is published in the Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.