Early term ocular changes after cold compress application

Purpose: To examine changes in the eyes after cold compress application at the early stage. Method: A total of 62 eyes from 62 healthy adult participants were included in this cross-sectional and comparative study. The subfoveal choroidal thickness and retinal nerve fiber thickness were measured by spectral-domain ocular coherence tomography. The central corneal thickness, anterior segment volume and depth, iridocorneal angle, and pupil diameter were measured by means of the Scheimpflug anterior segment imaging method. The measurements were repeated after 10 min of cold compress application, which was applied using special packs. The procedures were then repeated with non-cold packages to exclude the effect of pressure. Results: The average age of the participants was 30.74 ± 5.82 years. There was no significant change in the central corneal thickness after cold compress application, and there was a significant decrease in the anterior segment volume (p<0.001), anterior segment depth (p<0.001), and pupil diameter. Moreover, the iridocorneal angle increased (p=0.002). The subfoveal choroidal thickness decreased after the application of cold compress (p<0.001). The overall disk thickness (p=0.034) and superior nasal scale (p=0.007) significantly decreased after the cold compress was administered during the evaluation of optic nerve fiber thickness. In contrast to that with the cold application, the subfoveal choroidal thickness and optic nerve fiber thickness did not change after the non-cold compress application (p>0.05). Conclusion: Cold compress application may thus cause some physiological changes in the eyes, which necessitates the examination of its usage and effects. (author)