Background
Cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye which leads to a decrease in vision. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry vision, halos around light, trouble with bright lights, and trouble seeing at night(1). Phacoemulsification is a modern technique which the eye's internal lens is emulsified with an ultrasonic handpiece and aspirated from the eye. Phacoemulsification surgery is done with a double armed weapon which is called the phaco probe , this device emulsificate the cataractous lens and aspirate it in a marvelous fashion leaving an eye with as small lamellar self-sealing wound as 3 mm or even less . But during the surgery , the ultrasonic waves harm the corneal endothelial cells.(2)
Aim
To compare between corneal endothelial cell count after phacoemulsification cataract surgery in cases with different anterior chamber depths.
Patients and Methods
Study design: It is prospective comperative cohort non-randomized study . The study was carried out on 30 eyes of patients collected from zagazig university hospitals , ophthalmology department , in the duration between July 2018 to January 2019 with cataract and underwent corneal endothelial cell count before and after phacoemulsification surgery, the patients were divided into three groups according to their anterior chamber depth (ACD) : Group A : patients with ACD ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 mm ,Group B : patients with ACD ranging from 2.5to3.5 mm ,Group C : patients with ACD more than 3.5 mm , Complete ophthalmological examinations will be done for every patient with calculation of endothelial cell count before and after phacoemulsification .
Results
After 3 months postoperatively, the percentage of endothelial cell loss in group A with anterior chamber depth ACD ranging from 1.5mm to 2.5 mm was 16.265% while in group B with ACD ranging from 2.5mm to 3.5mm was 11.976%. In group C with ACD more than 3.5mm, the percentage of corneal endothelial cell loss was the least of all, 4.126%.
Conclusion
Eyes with shallow ACDs, especially those with relatively hard cataract densities, can be vulnerable to more corneal endothelial cell loss in phacoemulsification surgery. Thus, more attention is needed to avoid corneal decompensation in cataract surgery on patients with shallow ACDs and hard nucleus densities.
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