No abstract

Five of 16 patients who had uncomplicated cataract extraction with intraocular lens (IOL) implantation within a 2.5 day period experienced increased anterior segment inflammation on their first postoperative day. Four of these five patients had phacoemulsification and one a planned extracapsular cataract extraction. All had posterior chamber IOL implantation in the capsular bag. In all patients, this anterior segment inflammation cleared with topical steroids over two to three weeks with no evident residual ocular effects. A careful search for the possible cause of the inflammation showed that the ultrasonic cleaning bath and Weck liquid detergent used to clean the instruments contained Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. Further investigation demonstrated the presence of a heat-stable endotoxin produced by the bacteria. We postulate that endotoxin remaining on the instruments after cleaning and sterilization caused this postoperative anterior segment inflammation. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first reported cases caused by contaminated liquid detergent.

No abstract

Historically, extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) has been shown to cause less endothelial cell loss than phacoemulsification. To further evaluate endothelial cell loss following phacoemulsification, we prospectively studied 60 patients who underwent cataract extraction with "in situ" phacoemulsification within the capsular bag following a continuoustear circular capsulotomy, with placement of a posterior chamber intraocular lens (PC-IOL) in the capsular bag. All procedures were performed by a single senior ophthalmology resident. The average preoperative endothelial count was 2318 ± 36 cells/ mm p 2 ; the average postoperative count (at 8.5 weeks) was 2167 ± 41 cells/mm p 2 . The average endothelial cell loss, then, was 6.4 ± 1.2%. This level of cell loss with a capsular-bag-fixed PC-IOL is comparable to that reported for ECCE.