Changes in corneal endothelial density following scleral buckling surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Abstract Background To investigate the effect of scleral buckling (SB) on the morphology and density of human corneal endothelial cells (HCEC). Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 26 patients who had undergone SB due to rhegmatogenous retinal detachment were enrolled, in which 15 patients received encircling while the other 11 segment types of SB. The postoperative status of affected eye, preoperative status of affected eye, and the contralateral healthy eye was served as the study, control and contralateral groups. The images of the corneal endothelium was obtained by specular microscopy at least three months postoperatively and analyzed. Results Postoperative best-corrected visual acuity of the study group was worse than that of another two groups (P