Continuing corneal endothelial loss in intracapsular surgery with and without Binkhorst four-loop lenses: a long-term specular microscopy study.

We analyzed pre- and postoperative corneal endothelial photographs of 17 intracapsular cataract extractions (ICCE) with Binkhorst four-loop intraocular lens (IOL) eyes and found 11.6% mean cell loss at 2 months (previously reported by Hirst et al) increasing to 42.4% after 5 years (p less than 0.05) and 51.8% at 7 years. Eleven ICCE eyes without IOLs similarly examined showed a 15.6% mean cell loss at 2 months (previously reported by Hirst et al), increasing to 33.4% at 5 years (p less than 0.005, paired t-test). Our results appear to indicate long-term continuing cell loss after ICCE, both with and without Binkhorst four-loop iris clip IOLs, and statistically significant greater cell loss (p less than .001, unpaired t-test) with IOLs than without.