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Endothelial cell loss a function of trauma, not presence of AC IOL, study says
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Endothelial cell loss after anterior chamber IOL implantation is a result of surgical trauma, not the presence of the IOL in the eye, a retrospective study suggests. Corneal endothelial function does not appear to be altered after anterior chamber IOL implantation, the study authors found.
Giuseppe Ravalico, MD, and colleagues at the University of Trieste, Italy, reviewed the records of 125 patients who had been implanted with an anterior chamber (AC) IOL between 1987 and 1998. Mean follow-up was 5.2 years. Specular microscopy was performed, and results were compared with fellow eyes that were either phakic or pseudophakic with posterior chamber (PC) IOLs. A second analysis was performed in 63 of these patients 2 years later, and the results were compared to those in the same eye at the previous examination.
Endothelial cell density was significantly lower in eyes with primary or secondary AC IOL implantation than in unoperated phakic eyes. In patients who had primary AC IOL implantation in one eye and PC IOL implantation in the fellow eye, there was no significant difference in endothelial cell counts.
The study is published in the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.