Corneal edema: iris-clip lens implantation and simple intracapsular extraction compared.

Corneal edema following intracapsular lens extraction and iris-clip lens implantation was compared by assessing corneal thickness and epithelial edema. In a retrospective study the corneal thickness of twenty patients who had intracapsular lens extraction in one eye only was compared with twenty-six patients with iris-clip lens implants in one eye. There was no significant increase in corneal thickness in the operated eye in either group. In a prospective randomized controlled study, a smaller number of patients, had serial measurements of corneal thickness pre- and postoperatively. There was an increase in thickness in the immediate postoperative period for both groups. However, there was no significant difference between eyes which had simple extraction and those which had implants. The implanted eyes however had greater mean increase endothelial trauma in the initial period, compared to eyes with cataract extraction alone.