[Effect of medicinal treatment on epithelial wound healing after phacoemulsification]

to compare the dynamics of epithelial wound healing under two different post-op treatments in patients after uncomplicated phacoemulsification.

This prospective randomized clinical trial included 40 eyes of 40 patients aged 66.4±8.2 years who underwent uncomplicated phacoemulsification with flexible intraocular lens implantation through a 2.2-mm corneal incision. Patients were randomized to receive either dexamethasone 0.1% and diclofenac 0.1% (n=20 eyes, Group I), or bromfenac 0.09% (n=20 eyes, Group II). Also, all patients instilled levofloxacin 0.5%. The dynamics of epithelial wound healing was assessed with the RTVue-100 spectral domain optical coherence tomograph with CAM-L corneal module in the 3D CORNEA mode 2 hours after surgery and on days 1, 3, 5, and 10.

The postoperative period was uneventful in all cases. Two hours after surgery, epithelial defects were found in all eyes and their length did not differ statistically p=0.47. On the first day after surgery, complete epithelization was observed in 30% of cases from Group I and 60% of cases from Group II. The average length of epithelial defects was reliably smaller in Group II than in Group I (p=0.04 respectively). On postoperative day 3, 20% eyes from Group I still had epithelial defects with the average length of 0.45±0.13 mm, while there was only one eye with a 0.2-mm epithelial defect in Group II. Finally, on postoperative day 5, there was a single 0.3-mm epithelial defect in one eye from Group I. On day 10, none of the patients had epithelial defects in either group.

Epithelial wound healing at the site of corneal incision after non-complicated phacoemulsification was found to be faster in patients instilled with bromfenac twice daily than in patients receiving dexamethasone and diclofenac four times daily as anti-inflammatory therapy and given topical fluoroquinolones for antibacterial purpose.