Evaluation of intraoperative aphakic eye axial length measurements using swept-source OCT.

Purpose: To evaluate intraoperative aphakic eye axial length (AL) measurements using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). Setting: Hanusch Hospital, Vienna, Austria. Design: Prospective single-center study. Methods: Patients scheduled for cataract surgery were measured using SS-OCT (IOLMaster 700, Carl Zeiss Meditec AG) to assess the AL. Intraoperatively (intra-OP), SS-OCT measurements were performed with a prototype device (IOLMaster 700 connected to an OPMI Lumera 700 microscope, CZM) at the beginning of cataract surgery furthermore of the aphakic eye and 2 months after surgery. Results: 106 patients were included. Of the 59 eyes of 59 patients, the phakic median AL preoperatively and intra-OP was 23.61 mm ± 0.96 (standard deviation [SD]) and 23.51 mm ± 0.96 (SD), respectively. The absolute median difference was 0.028 ± 0.02 (SD) (P = .049). Median phakic AL intra-OP vs 2 months postoperatively (post-OP) was 23.51 mm ± 0.97 (SD) vs 23.49 mm ± 0.95 (SD). The absolute median difference was 0.049 ± 0.04 (SD) (P = .000). Median AL intra-OP aphakic vs 2 months post-OP pseudophakic was 23.42 mm ± 0.97 (SD) vs 23.42 mm ± 0.97 (SD), respectively. Absolute median difference was 0.038 ± 0.04 (SD) (P = .379). Conclusions: Intra-OP, SS-OCT technology of the phakic and aphakic eye shows excellent comparability to preoperative and postoperative measurements. This technique allows AL measurements with high precision in cases in which preoperative biometric measurements are not possible.