Study of assessment of the corneal endothelial cell count in phacoemulsification versus manual small incision cataract surgery

Abstract

A total of 100 patients were included in the study. The patients were divided in two groups - Group I and Group II. Each group comprised of 50 patients. Group I patients underwent cataract surgery by phacoemulsification with PCIOL implantation and group II patients underwent manual SICS with PCIOL implantation. Specular microscopy was conducted for every patient preoperatively (1st visit) using Topcon noncontact specular microscope. Patients were then re-examined at 1 week (2nd visit) and 6 weeks (3rd visit) after surgery and endothelial cell count repeated. The age of patients varied between 48-74 years with a mean age of61.64 ± 6.80years in group I and between 47-76 years with a mean age of 61.42 ± 7.00 years in group II. There were 21 males and 29 females in group I and 22 males and 28 females in group II. The most common type of cataract in group I is NS II with PSC (40%) and the least common is NS III with PSC (6%). The most common type of cataract in group II is NS II with PSC (38%) and the least common type is NS IV (10%). The preoperative vision (BCVA) was worse than 6/36 in 78% and only 22% were between 6/24 and 6/36. Postoperative BCVA in most (98%) of patients is between 6/6 to 6/18 in group I. The preoperative BCVA in most of patients (86%) was worse than 6/36, only 14% were between 6/24 and 6/36. Postoperative BCVA in most of patients (96%) is between 6/6 to 6/18 in group II. The mean preoperative endothelial cell count in group I was 2657.8 ±258.4 cells/mm2. The mean preoperative endothelial cell count in group II was 2628.74 ± 243.46 cells/mm2.The mean endothelial cell loss seen from 1st to 2nd visit was 270 ±52.99 cells/mm2 in group I and 290.1 ± 50.75 cells/mm2 in group II. The cell loss was statistically significant (p