Purpose  

To evaluate the effect of posterior capsular opacification (PCO) on retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) retardation measurements obtained during scanning laser polarimetry (SLP). We are unaware of previous studies undertaken in this sense.

Methods  

SLP was performed using GDx variable corneal compensation (VCC) on 28 eyes of 28 non-glaucomatous patients with clinically significant PCO, previous uneventful cataract surgery and no other ocular pathology, both before and after Nd:YAG capsulotomy. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP) and SLP examination parameters prior and following PCO removal were compared using the Student t-test and Wilcoxon’s test. Spearman correlations between BCVA and SLP measurements before and after capsulotomy were also performed.

Results  

PCO removal was associated with an increase of BCVA (P<0.0001), nerve fiber indicator (NFI) (P<0.0001) and typical scan score (TSS) (P<0.0001). In parallel, significant decreases of all absolute parameters were observed after capsulotomy. IOP, symmetry, superior ratio, inferior ratio and temporal-superior-nasal-inferior-temporal (TSNIT) standard deviation (SD) revealed no changes. Before capsulotomy, marked correlation existed between the BCVA and some SLP measurements such as nasal average (r= −0.703; P<0.0001) or NFI (r= 0.564; P=0.0017). After PCO removal these correlations were no longer found.

Conclusions  

PCO removal changes SLP measurements. Therefore, new measurements to serve as a baseline for future comparisons should be obtained after Nd:YAG capsulotomy. Furthermore, some SLP measurements were significantly associated with BCVA before capsulotomy, suggesting that this technology may be useful to quantify PCO degree in non-glaucomatous patients.