Short-term Changes in Anterior Chamber Depth after Traumatic Hyphema

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze short-term changes in anterior chamber depth (ACD) immediately and 1 month after traumatic hyphema. Methods: Thirty-two patients with traumatic hyphema treated from October 2015 to July 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Nineteen were followed-up for 1 month. The ACDs were measured using an IOL Master 500 platform and the differences between the affected and contralateral eyes immediately after trauma and 1 month after treatment analyzed. The ACD differences between the affected and contralateral eyes of those with gross and microscopic hyphema and the correlations between the ACD differences of the two eyes were analyzed by age. Results: The average age was 36.0 ± 14.2 years and 24 patients were male (75%). The ACDs of affected eyes were greater than those of contralateral eyes both immediately after trauma (3.81 ± 0.38 vs. 3.55 ± 0.43 mm; p = 0.021) and 1 month after trauma (3.73 ± 0.37 vs. 3.61 ± 0.37 mm; p = 0.001). The ACD gaps and ACD/axial length ratios (%) did not differ significantly between the injured and contralateral eyes of the gross and microscopic hyphema groups immediately after trauma (p = 0.951/0.981). The ACDs of affected eyes decreased 1 month after trauma compared to immediately after trauma (3.73 ± 0.37 vs. 3.87 ± 0.40 mm; p = 0.013). The ACD difference immediately after trauma increased significantly with older age (R = 0.387, p = 0.018). Conclusions: The ACDs of eyes with traumatic hyphema increased significantly compared to those of the contralateral eyes immediately after trauma. The ACDs decreased after treatment but 1 month later were still significantly greater than the ACDs of the contralateral side. ©2023 The Korean Ophthalmological Society.