Postsurgical Inflammation Measured with Laser Flare Meter after Silicone or PMMA Intraocular Lens Implantation

ABSTRACT

It has been reported that silicone intraocular lens(IOL) induces severer and longer intraocular inflammation than polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) IOL after extracapsular cataract extraction and IOL implantation. In order to evaluate the effect of IOL type on intraocular inflammation the authors measured the aqueous flare intensity by using the laser flare meter(FM 500 Kowa company) from postoperative one day to six months in 100 eyes with phacoemulsification followed by silicone IOL implantation (silicone group) and 100 eyes with phacoemulsification followed by PMMA IOL implantation(PMMA group). Every subject had a simple cataractous lens without systemic disease like diabetes or hypertension. There were no statistically significant differences between two groups in postsurgical aqueous flare intensity during the followed up period(p>0.05). The changes of aqueous flare intensity was spiking on the postoperative one day, declining rapidly in the first week and then keeping a steady state in both groups. Conclusively, we considered that surgically induced inflammation was not influenced by IOL type of PMMA or silicone in cataract operation without complication.