Bacterial Adherence to Intraocular Lenses

ABSTRACT

Bacterial adherence to intraocular lenses (IOLs)could be the cause of the endophthalmitis following cataract surgery and IOL implantation. In this study we investigated bacterial adherences to the four different IOLs. Clinical strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were used.Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), silicone, hydrophilic acrylate (Acrysof)and hydrogel IOLs were used in this study.Four types of lenses were suspended for 60 minutes in suspensions of each strain of bacteria and then these lenses were washed with sterile broth to remove the nonadherent bacteria.The adherent bacteria were removed from the lenses, diluted with sterile broth and inoculated onto the blood and chocolate agar plates.The plates were incubated for 24 hours, and the numbers of colony forming units were counted. The lenses with the adherence of S.aureus in order of decreasing magnitude were Acrysof>silicone>hydrogel>PMMA; the adherence of S.epider-midis, silicone>Acrysof>PMMA>hydrogel;the adherence of P.aeruginosa, Acrysof>silicone>PMMA>hydrogel. The bacterial adherence was significantly lower in the hydrophilic IOL.This result suggests that the risk of postoperative endophthalmitis after cataract extraction and IOL implantation may be reduced with the use of hydrophilic IOL.