[Disorder of the blood-aqueous barrier after eye muscle operation in children].

UNLABELLED

We wanted to study the effect of squint surgery on the blood-aqueous barrier in children. Our interest was to ascertain whether or not there is a breakdown of the blood-aqueous barrier after routine squint surgery, and whether this would need antiinflammatory treatment with steroids.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Forty-seven eyes of 18 girls and 7 boys (age range 4-14 years) were examined. The children were generally healthy and had not undergone any previous eye surgery. The mean age of patients (n = 25) was 7.8 +/- 3.1 years. Using the laser flare meter Kowa FM-500, the flare (photocounts/ms) in the anterior chamber was measured before and on the 2nd day after squint surgery (n = 32). Fifteen eyes served as controls and were not operated on. Following surgery, the operated eyes were treated with aminoglycoside eye drops (three times daily). No steroids or non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs were applied before or after surgery.

RESULTS

The flare values were 4.10 +/- 1.29 photocounts/ms before and 3.89 +/- 1.27 photocounts/ms after squint surgery. There was no significant increase (P = 0.58) of flare on the 2nd postoperative day.

CONCLUSION

Our data confirm that there is no clinically significant disruption of the blood-aqueous barrier following squint surgery. We therefore conclude that there is no need for postoperative therapy with steroids.