Change in refraction, corneal power and axial length of the eye secondary to silicone oil tamponade injection after pars plana vitrectomy

Background: Refractive and ocular biometric changes after silicone oil tamponade (SOT) in phakic eyes have been studied thoroughly; however, similar studies amongst Sudanese patients with vitreoretinal conditions were not carried out.Aim: This study aimed to assess post-operative changes in refraction, corneal power and axial length after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with SOT in phakic patients.Setting: The study was conducted at Sudan Eye Center, Khartoum, Sudan.Methods: A cross-sectional retrospective hospital-based study was performed at Sudan Eye Center. The study included all phakic patients who underwent PPV with SOT for a variety of vitreoretinal conditions from October 2018 to January 2019. Clinical investigations included uncorrected visual acuity (VA), best-corrected VA, refraction, corneal power and axial length pre- and post-surgery. Differences in these parameters were assessed using a paired sample t-test with a significance level of 0.05.Results: Medical records of 59 consecutive patients (59 eyes, 41 men and 18 women) with ages ranging from 22 years to 75 years were studied. The findings revealed a statistically significant hypermetropic change (pre: –0.17 ± 2.44 dioptre [D] and post: +4.43 ± 2.04 D) with a p-value of 0.001. In terms of axial length, there was a significant increase (pre: 23.61 ± 1.17 mm and post: 23.82 ± 1.27 mm; p  0.001). However, no significant change was found in corneal power (pre: –43.60 ± 1.96 D and post: 43.63 ± 2.03 D; p = 0.45).Conclusion: A hypermetropic shift in refraction, longer axial length and non-considerable increase in corneal power were observed amongst Sudanese phakic patients after PPV with instillation of silicone oil.