Changes of corneal endothelial cells after phacoemulsification in patients with dark area in corneal endothelium

Objective To investigate the changes of corneal endothelial cells after phacoemulsification in the patients with dark area in corneal endothelium.Methods A total of 65 eyes from 48 patients with dark area in corneal endothelium who received phacoemulsification were enrolled in the present study,including 52 eyes with physiological dark areas and 12 eyes with pathological ones,and 65 eyes without dark area in corneal endothelium were taken as controls.Corneal endothelium examination was done before,1 week,1 and 3 months after operation,and the edema of corneal endothelium was recorded 3 days after operation.Results There was no significant difference in endothelial cell counts and coefficient of variation between the control group and patients with physiological dark area before and after operation(P0.05).The endothelial cell count in the pathological dark area patients was significantly less than those in the control group and physiological dark group(P0.05), and the loss rate of corneal cells and the coefficient of variation of corneal were significantly higher(P0.05). Conclusions Patients with physiological dark area has good tolerance to phacoemulsification,and those with pathological dark area should be more careful in using phacoemulsification;efforts should be made to minimize injury to the corneal so as to reduce loss of corneal cells.