Opaque bubble layer is the problem in which a layer of bubbles is formed in the middle of the eyes which hinders sight. The study was carried out to evaluate the impact of cap thickness on the formation of OBL during small incision lenticule extraction procedures.
The total number of 50 patients were examined for the study. One of two corneal cap thicknesses was randomly assigned to each eye and differed in the contralateral eye: 110 µm in one eye and 140 µm in the other. OBL area and density were quantitatively assessed.
The proportion of OBL areas in the anterior lenticule plane was 11.70% ± 7.35% in the 110-µm group, which was significantly higher than the 140-µm group (6.64% ± 4.68%, P < .001). For OBL areas located in the posterior lenticule plane, mean areas for the 110-µm group were also higher than those for the 140-µm group (1.32% ± 1.20% and 0.94% ± 0.59%, respectively; P = .002). Mean gray values of the OBL in the posterior lenticule plane were slightly different between the two groups (P < .001), but no significant difference in OBL of the anterior lenticule plane was observed (P = .055). Eyes with a 110-µm cap thickness had more focal OBLs, revealed by cap scanning (chi-square = 10.256, P = .001).
The study concluded that corneal cap thickness is predictive of opaque bubble layer during small incision lenticule extraction procedures.
Reference: https://doi.org/10.3928/1081597X-20200720-02
