Choroidal changes after cardiopulmonary bypass

Abstract

Aim: Choroid, which is the vascular tissue responsible for blood supply to the outer parts of the retina, might be affected by hemodynamic events. We aimed to reveal choroidal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude changes after cardiopulmonary bypass in which gross hemodynamic alterations occur. Methods: Forty-two eyes of 42 patients who underwent heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass were examined in this prospective, cross-sectional case series. The spectral domain optical coherence tomography (Spectralis, Heidelberg, Germany) was used to analyze sub-foveal choroidal thickness. The ocular pulse amplitude, the surrogate of gross choroidal blood flow, was measured with the Pascal dynamic contour tonometer (Pascal DCT, Swiss Microtechnology AG, Port, Switzerland).. The intraocular pressure was also measured with this tonometer. The examinations were performed pre-operatively and post-operatively at the first week and first month. Results: The mean age of the patients was 58.8 ± 12.4 years. The mean sub-foveal choroidal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude values did not change statistically significantly after the operations at the follow-up visits (p>0.05). Also, there were no important correlations between cardiopulmonary bypass time and mean sub-foveal choroidal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude changes at the post-operative first week (p>0.05). The intraocular pressure values were decreased markedly at the control visits (p<0.05). Conclusions: Sub-foveal choroidal thickness and ocular pulse amplitude are unchanged, while intraocular pressure decreases one week and one month after cardiopulmonary bypass.