[Long-term changes in the corneal endothelium after intraocular lens implantation]

The characteristics of the corneal endothelium of 134 eyes which underwent extracapsular cataract extraction and intraocular lens implantation from 1984 to 1990 were studied. We classified the initial 29 eyes as group 1 and the most recent 105 eyes as group 2. Endothelial cell loss of group 1 was much larger than that of the latter group, reflecting the degree of surgical damage. Endothelial cell of both groups decreased with index functions. The coefficient of variation of both groups showed no significant change during the observation period. The hexagonal cells of both groups decreased once after surgery, and it increased after one year in group 1, and after three months in group 2. However the late phase of the change of hexagonal cells appeared to have no relation to the degree of surgical damage. The change of hexagonal cells was supplemented by the appearance of pentagonal cells and heptagonal cells.