Effect of Cigarette Smoking on Macular, Choroidal, and Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Thickness

Abstract

moking is one of the most significant and preventable health problems of our time. The duration of smoking and the number of cigarettes strongly affecting the rate of morbidity and mortality. Smoking is highly associated with respiratory diseases as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. Also affects skin, soft tissues, immune system, increasing incidence of bacterial infections, impairs wound healing and bone mineral density. Also Smoking also can cause or worsen several ocular pathologies such as age-related macular degeneration, ischemic optic neuropathy, hypertensive retinopathy, cataract, glaucoma, thyroid orbitopathy, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, and strabismus in the offspring of smoking parents. Many of these diseases lead to irreversible blindness. In this meta-analysis we studied the influence of tobacco smoking on retinal layers and choroidal thickness, 13 studies are included in this meta-analysis all were published between 2000 and 2021. All are observational studies. The mean age ranged between 20.2-65 years in smokers and between 21.63-65 in non-smokers.