TY - JOUR T1 - A retrospective study on the incidence of post-cataract surgery Descemet’s membrane detachment and outcome of air descemetopexy JF - British Journal of Ophthalmology JO - Br J Ophthalmol DO - 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2016-309766 SP - bjophthalmol-2016-309766 AU - Annamalai Odayappan AU - Narayana Shivananda AU - Seema Ramakrishnan AU - Tiruvengada Krishnan AU - Sivagami Nachiappan AU - Smitha Krishnamurthy Y1 - 2017/06/13 UR - http://bjo.bmj.com/content/early/2017/06/13/bjophthalmol-2016-309766.abstract N2 - Purpose To study the anatomic and functional outcome of air descemetopexy in postcataract surgery Descemet’s membrane detachment (DMD).Design Retrospective study.Methods Setting: Institutional.Study population: Records of 112 patients who underwent air descemetopexy for postcataract surgery sight-threatening DMD at Aravind Eye Hospital, Pondicherry, between January 2013 and December 2015 were studied.Main outcome measures: Anatomical outcome refers to reattachment of the Descemet’s membrane (DM). Functional outcome was given by the best-corrected visual acuity.Results The mean age was 66.47±8.46 (SD) years, the male to female ratio was 45:67. The incidence of DMD was more in extracapsular cataract extraction (0.26%) and manual small incision cataract surgery (0.11%) than phacoemulsification (0.04%) (p=0.005 and p<0.0001). DMD was more common among surgical trainees (0.17%) than consultants (0.07%) (p≤0.0001). After primary air descemetopexy, 78 (71%) out of the 110 patients had DM reattachment. The complications noted after descemetopexy include persistent DMD (21.8%), corneal decompensation (7.3%), appositional angle closure (18%), pupillary block with air (2.7%) and uveitis (2.7%). Age, sex and timing of intervention did not influence the reattachment rate. Fifteen patients underwent repeat air descemetopexy for persistent DMD among whom nine (60%) had successful reattachment. Almost 75% of patients had vision better than 6/18 1 month after anatomically successful descemetopexy.Conclusion Air descemetopexy is a safe and efficient modality of treatment of DMD and should be tried even in patients with severe DMD before planning a major surgery like endothelial keratoplasty. ER -