To evaluate the choroidal and retinal thickness changes after cataract phacoemulsification in diabetic and non-diabetic patients and compare it with each other, using enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT).

Two groups of patients were enrolled into this prospective study. Group A includes diabetic patients without diabetic retinopathy (DR) or with mild non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) who underwent phacoemulsification surgery, group B includes non-diabetic patients with significant cataract who underwent phacoemulsification. Subfoveal Choroidal thickness(SFCT) and central macular thickness(CMT) were measured before surgery using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). Patients were re-evaluated 1 month and 3 months after operation and compared with the baseline values. Data were analyzing with independent and paired T-test. P-value<0.05 was considered as significant.

Totally 106 eyes from 106 patients were enrolled to this study including 53 eyes in group A and 53 eyes in group B. CMT in Non-diabetic and diabetic patients was 264 ± 29 and 267 ± 32 respectively while SFCT was 236 ± 60 and 199 ± 72 prior surgery. After 1 month of surgery CMT was increased to 278 ± 42 (P<0.001) in non-diabetic and 291 ± 77(P=0.034) in diabetic patients whereas after 3 months was 276 ± 56(P=0.028) and 293 ± 75 (P=0.047). SFCT increased to 265 ± 64(P<0.001) and 231 ± 73(P=0.035) in non-diabetic and diabetic patients, although it becomes to 276 ± 56(P=0.028) and 293 ± 75(P=0.047) after 3 months, respectively.

Subfoveal choroidal thickness and also central macular thickness increased significantly in diabetic eyes after cataract surgery and reached its highest values at 1 month post-operative examination.