We report the findings of a prospective study into the bacterial contamination of monofilament nylon sutures removed from corneal wounds following cataract surgery. Sutures were classified as tight, loose or broken at the time of removal. Loose and broken sutures showed significantly more bacterial contamination than tight sutures (p < 0.001, chi squared). Positive cultures were obtained from 2 (6.2%) of 32 tight sutures, 14 (38.9%) of 36 loose sutures and 11 (37.9%) of 29 broken sutures. Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most commonly isolated organism (isolated in pure growth from 22 (81.5%) of 27 positive cultures). These findings may explain the occasional association of biodegraded corneal monofilament nylon sutures and suppurative keratitis and highlight the potential risk of seeding a suture track infection at the time of suture removal. They also emphasise the need for prophylactic topical antibiotic when removing biodegraded sutures.

Thirty two cases of endophthalmitis following extracapsular cataract surgery that had occurred within our department and had undergone intraocular diagnostic tap between

A prospective study was performed on the quality of photographs produced by the non-mydriatic fundus camera used in a hospital-based screening programme for diabetic retinopathy. In 1 year 981 binocular patients were photographed. A photograph of acceptable quality was obtained from 90.5% of eyes and 84.4% of patients had an acceptable photograph of both eyes. The photograph of the second eye was more often unacceptable than that of the first. This tendency was significant in females (p = 0.0196) and when considering the sexes together (p = 0.0044), but not significant in males (p = 0.1042). Photographs of unacceptable quality were obtained significantly more often in patients aged over 55 years for both right and left eyes (p = 0.001). An overall improvement in photographic quality might be achieved by allowing full recovery of flash-induced pupil constriction before taking the second photograph and by dilating those aged over 55 years.

In the presence of epinephrine in the intraocular irrigating solution, both prednisolone 1% and flurbiprofen 0.03% failed to maintain mydriasis at the crucial steps of nuclear emulsification and cortical I/A.