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Influencing factors for morphological changes of Elschnig pearls after Nd:YAG capsulotomy. Nino Hirnschall 1, 2 , Thomas Neumayer 3 , Michael Georgopoulos 3 , Oliver Findl 1, 2. 1 VIROS Institute, Hanusch Hospital, Vienna, Austria 2 Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK
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Influencing factors for morphological changes of Elschnig pearls after Nd:YAG capsulotomy Nino Hirnschall 1, 2, Thomas Neumayer 3, Michael Georgopoulos 3, Oliver Findl 1, 2 1 VIROS Institute, Hanusch Hospital, Vienna, Austria 2 Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK 3 Department of Ophthalmology, AKH, Vienna, Austria Financial disclosure: none
Aim To assess the influence of the following factors on Elschnig pearls and the YAG-opening: • Nd:YAG capsulotomy settings: • number of shots • YAG-Energy • total Energy • Morphological changes: • number of newly appearing pearls • size and shape changes of Elschnig pearls
Methods • Design: prospective observational study • Patients with pronounced regeneratory posterior capsule opacification (rPCO) were included in a continuous cohort • Five digital retroillumination images were taken 10 minutes before YAG-capsulotomy, and 10 minutes, 1 week, 2 weeks and 1year after YAG-capsulotomy in a standardized fashion by two experienced examiners. Nd:YAG-capsulotomy 1a PreYAG 1w 2w PostYAG
Methods • Analysis: all image-series were analyzed with a dedicated image analysis software that allows tracing of single Elschnig pearls from image to image
1 year after YAG Results • Alltogether 2452 pearls in 20 eyes of 19 patients were observed. • In the first week after Nd:YAG-capsulotomy 6 new pearls appeared per eye (range: 0-18) with a mean size of 3000µm2 (range: 4000 – 9000). pearl formation at the capsulotomy margin One year after Nd:YAG-capsulotomy pearl formations at the capsulotomy margin were found in 84% of eyes (mean: 3.9 pearls per eye, range: 0-17).
Results • Mean laser energy level of 1.5mJ was used for the YAG-capsulotomy (range: 1.1mJ to 2.4mJ) • No correlation between the laser settings and morphological changes of Elschnig pearls, or the YAG-opening Correlation of YAG energy and changes of the YAG-opening mJ 400 300 Total Nd:YAG energy 200 r= 0.29 100 0 mm2 0 1 2 3 Changes of the YAG opening1 week after Nd:YAG capsulotomy
Change of the YAG-opening in the first year after Nd:YAG capsulotomy % 20 YAG-openings: 11x increase in size 3x stable (±5%) 6x decrease in size 1 year 1 week 2 weeks
1 year after YAG 2 weeks after YAG Example: Decrease (6 cases)
Early pearls - prognostic factor The correlation between number of appearing pearls in the first week after capsulotomy and pearl formations at the capsulotomy-margin one year later was high. Number of appearing pearls r = 0.834, p < 0.05 n = 20 eyes Number of pearl strings per eye after 1 year
Conclusion • The appearance of new pearls in the first week after Nd:YAG-capsulotomy seems to be a prognostic factor for the long-term outcome concerning number of pearl formations at the capsulotomy margin. Pearl strings can cause glare, impede peripheral retinal examination and may necessitate secondary enlargement of the capsulotomy opening.