Correspondence Address:
A K Gautam

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Editor:

Disruption of the blood aqueous barrier (BAB) following cataract surgery is associated with a need for prolonged medication, increased risk of postoperative complications, and delayed visual recovery. Damage to the BAB immediately after cataract surgery is proportional to the size of incisions, apart from being related to uveal insult. Phacoemulsification has been reported to be less traumatic to the eye than extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE).[1][2][3]

A tertiary-care centre-based study was undertaken to compare the time taken for re-establishment of BAB after posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation with phacoemulsification (n=20) and with ECCE (n=20) in Indian subjects over 50 years of age. Assessment of blood aqueous barrier was done by the method suggested by Boyd.[4] One gram of fluorescein was given orally, and one hour later, the patients were examined noting a slitlamp biomicroscope, with a 2 m-wide, 8 mm-high slit beam traversing the anterior chamber at a 45� angle. The colour of fluorescein in the operated eye was compared to that in the fellow eye. Weekly assessments were done till re-establishment of BAB was found to have occurred, as evidenced by lack of a perceptible difference in the colour of aqueous of the two eyes (inter-observer correlation coefficient=0.6). It was found that the median time taken for re-establishment of BAB was 3 weeks (range 2-5 weeks) in patients undergoing phacoemulsification (Group A), as compared to 5 weeks (range 4-6 weeks) in patients undergoing ECCE (Group B). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.01 Mann Whitney U test).

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