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Study: Phaco’s effect on blood-aqueous barrier elevated in proliferative retinopathy

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The blood-aqueous barrier is more severely affected by phacoemulsification in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy than in patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy or those without diabetes, according to a Chinese study.

Y. Liu, MD, and colleagues at the Sun Yat-sen University examined the effect on the blood-aqueous barrier function of cataract surgery with foldable IOL implantation in 112 patients. Two of the patients had diabetes but no retinopathy, 37 had nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (DR), 17 had proliferative DR and 56 patients with no diabetes served as controls.

The blood-aqueous barrier function was measured using a flare/cell meter. Significant differences were noted between anterior chamber flare values preoperatively and flare values measured up to 1 month postop among normal patients and those with nonproliferative DR (P < .05). Only patients with proliferative DR still had elevated flare values at 3 months postop.

Preoperative mean aqueous flare photon counts were 8.9 in patients with proliferative DR, 7.03 in patients with nonproliferative DR and 6.94 in the control subjects.

The flare counts increased at 1 day postop to 32.42 in PDR patients, 26.07 in nonproliferative DR patients and 26.27 in control patients (P < .05). At 1 week, the counts decreased to 19.86 in patients with proliferative DR, 14.08 in patients with nonproliferative DR and 13.96 in control patients (P < .05).

After 1 month, mean aqueous flare photon counts decreased to 13.24 in proliferative DR patients, 9.86 in nonproliferative DR patients and 9.07 in normal patients (P < .05). At 3 months, mean flare counts were 11.25 in proliferative DR patients, 7.24 in nonproliferative DR patients and 7.16 in normal patients, according to the study authors.

Other potential variables, including age, sex, hypertension and phaco time and energy, did not affect the outcome.

The study is published in the September issue of Eye.