Obesrvation on the ocular surface and corneal endothelial cells in diabetic patients after phacoemulsification

Abstract

Objective To observe the ocular surface and corneal endothelial cells in diabetic patients after phacoemulsification. Methods Eighty-four eyes of 84 cases of cataract received phacoemulsification. Among them 42 eyes of 42 cases with diabetic mellitus were diabetic group, 42 eyes of 42 cases without diabetes were the pure group. No dry eye symptom before surgery occurred. All patients underwent phacoemulsification with corneal incision by the same doctor. No change of ocular fundus for diabetic patients occurred, and preoperative glycemic control was normal. Dry eye symptoms, corneal endothelial cell density, Schirmer Ⅰ test (SⅠt), corneal fluorescein staining (FL) score and lacrimal film breakup time (BUT) were compared between the two groups at preoperatively and postoperatively 3, 7 days and 1month. Results The difference of dry eye symptoms score, corneal endothelial cell density, SⅠt, FL score and BUT before operation were not statistically significant between 2 groups (P=0.9993, 0.5561, 0.8237, 0.1305, 0.8357). The difference of dry eye symptoms at 3 days after operation was not significant between 2 groups (P=0.1986). The dry eye symptoms score of diabetic group were higher than those in the pure group at 7 days and 1 month after operation (P<0.001). The corneal endothelial cell density after operation in diabetic group was lower than that in pure group. The difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). The SIt and FL scores in diabetic group were significantly higher than those in pure group, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.0001). The difference of BUT was not significant between 2 groups at 3 days after operation (P=0.6397), but the BUT of diabetic group at 7 days and 1 month after operation was significantly lower than that of pure group, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusion There is effect of phacoemulsification on dry eye symptoms, SⅠt and BUT for patients with diabetes mellitus, and which may be related to the impaired repair ability of diabetic patients. Key words: Cataract; Diabetes, mellitus; Phacoemulsification; Surface, ocular; Dry eye