Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome Outbreak after Cataract Surgery Triggered by Viscoelastic Substance

The purpose of this study is to present toxic anterior segment syndrome (TASS) outbreak at our clinic and discuss possible causes of TASS.

Thirty-four eyes of 34 patients developed TASS in a consecutive 2 weeks period were included in this study. Both anterior segment and fundus examinations were performed before and after uncomplicated cataract surgery. During the follow-up period, clinical features and all possible causes were evaluated including perioperative products and processing such as sterilization technique of surgical instruments, irrigating solutions, drugs, viscoelastic substance (VES), and intraocular lens.

Patients had corneal edema, anterior chamber reactions, and decreased vision. No patient had purulent secretion, chemosis, lid involvement, and pain. At first 2 postoperative days, patients treated as infectious endophthalmitis by topical and oral antibiotics and then TASS was suspected, and patients treated completely with topical steroids. Suspected cause for TASS was VES substance, 2% sodium hyaluronate which had newly been used as VES product in phacoemulsification surgery. No new case has occurred after stopped usage of this VES product.

As far as we know, this is the largest report of TASS outbreak in the shortest period from the same clinic caused by VES. Suboptimal products of surgical materials can be the cause of TASS. Close monitoring of each surgical step and elimination of causative agent can prevent the outbreaks of TASS.