To determine whether local corneal thickness changes observed with optical coherence tomography (OCT) can detect subclinical corneal edema in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD).

Retrospective cohort study.

A series of patients presenting FECD who underwent cataract surgery alone (45 eyes) or with concomitant Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (triple procedure; 117 eyes). The study reviewed medical records, collected the preoperative corneal thickness map and calculated the differences and ratio of corneal thickness measured at 5, 7, and 9 mm from the central corneal thickness. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) were calculated and thresholds were selected to obtain a specificity of 90%.

The median difference between 5- and 2-mm corneal thickness in the supra-nasal quadrant (∆5-2mmSN) was 38 µm (interquartile range 34-46) in the cataract group and 17 µm (2-38) in the triple procedure group (P < .001). The corneal thickness ratios of supra-nasal 5- to 2-mm (R5/2mmSN) and 7- to 2-mm (R7/2mmSN) were 1.07 (1.06-1.08) and 1.15 (1.13-1.17)] in the cataract group and 1.03 (1.00-1.06) and 1.09 (1.06-1.14) in the triple procedure group (P < .001). The probability of corneal edema was increased 7-fold with ∆5-2mm SN < 27 µm (AUC = 0.76) and 9.4- and 7.4-fold with R5/2mmSN and R7/2mmSN < 1.045 (AUC = 0.77) and 1.118 (AUC = 0.76), respectively.

Local changes in corneal thickness may be useful in detecting preclinical corneal edema, especially in patients with FECD undergoing cataract surgery.