Evaluation of Macular Thickness Changes Following Large Horizontal Rectus Muscle Recession: A Prospective Cohort Study

Aim The aim of the study was to evaluate the long-term effect of large horizontal rectus muscle recession on macula thickness using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Material and methods Forty-two children were included in the study. The intervention groups were the medial rectus (MR) group (=20 eyes ) and the lateral rectus (LR) group (=22 eyes), including the eyes that underwent large medial and lateral rectus muscle recession, respectively. The control group included the fellow 42 unoperated eyes of the same children. Each eye was scanned using Topcon Maestro2 OCT-Angiography (OCTA; Topcon, Tokyo, Japan) preoperatively and then two months following surgery. A paired t-test was used to compare the mean difference in macular thickness between the intervention and control groups using the statistical program R (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). Results The mean change in central, parafoveal, and perifoveal macular thickness of the intervention group was not statistically significant. Conclusion The long-term changes in macular thickness, as evaluated using SD-OCT both for the central and peripheral regions of the fovea, following large horizontal rectus muscle recession surgery, are not statistically significant.