AIM: To determine the effect of anterior-posterior joint surgery on choroidal thickness in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy(PDR).

METHODS:A retrospective, case-control study enrolled 60 eyes of 60 patients with PDR diagnosed at Qingdao Municipal Hospital. The patients, who had conditions that warranted anterior-posterior joint surgery, were divided into a clinically significant macular edema group(PDR/CSME+; 31 patients, 31 eyes)and a non-CSME group(PDR/CSME-; 29 patients, 29 eyes). Twenty-seven eyes of 27 normal patients were included in the control group. All affected eyes underwent anterior-posterior joint surgery. After surgery, the subfoveal choroidal thickness(SFCT), and the nasal choroidal thickness(NCT)and temporal choroidal thickness(TCT), which were obtained at a distance of 1500μm from the fovea in the nasal and temporal directions, respectively, were measured in the control and PDR groups by enhanced depth imaging spectral domain optical coherence tomography(EDI-SDOCT)at 1wk, 1, 3, and 6mo after surgery. Changes in choroidal thickness after anterior-posterior joint surgery were compared between the groups.

RESULTS: The SFCT, NCT, and TCT were significantly thicker at 1mo than at 1wk, 3, and 6mo after surgery in the PDR/CSME+ and PDR/CSME- groups(P<0.05). The SFCT, NCT, and TCT were significantly thinner at 6mo than at 1wk, 1, and 3mo after surgery in the PDR/CSME+ and PDR/CSME- groups(P<0.05). The SFCT, NCT, and TCT in the PDR/CSME+ and PDR/CSME- groups at 1wk, 1, and 3mo after surgery were significantly thicker than those in the control group(all P<0.05), but the SFCT, NCT, and TCT at 6mo after surgery showed no significant difference compared with the control group(all P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the SFCT, NCT, or TCT at 1wk, 1, 3, or 6mo between the PDR/CSME+ and PDR/CSME- groups(P>0.05).

CONCLUSION: The choroidal thickness of PDR patients increases within 1mo after surgery, and decreased after 1mo, but is not significantly different between the control group and the PDR groups at 6mo after surgery. Whether PDR is associated with CSME has no effect on the choroidal thickness after surgery.