Corneal thickness in eyes following pars plana lensectomy for congenital cataracts.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the corneal thickness following pars plana lensectomy for congenital cataracts.

METHODS

The corneal thickness was measured in 24 eyes of 24 patients with congenital cataracts who had undergone pars plana lensectomy at a mean age of 24 +/- 32 (SD) months. The mean age at the time of our evaluation was 15 +/- 3 years. These measurements were compared with those in 15 eyes of an age-matched group of 15 normal volunteers. The central corneal thickness and endothelium were evaluated in both groups.

RESULTS

The mean corneal thickness of the cataract-extracted eyes (592 +/- 47 micro m) was significantly greater than that of the controls (529 +/- 43 micro m; P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the corneal endothelial cell count between cataract-extracted eyes (3420 +/- 715/mm(2)) and the controls (3182 +/- 358/mm(2); P = 0.49). However, there were significant differences in the frequency of hexagonally shaped endothelial cells (63% +/- 8.4%, cataract-extracted eyes; 70% +/- 7.7%, controls; P < 0.01), and in the coefficient of variation in the endothelial cell size (33 +/- 6.0, cataract-extracted eyes; 26 +/- 4.8, controls; P< 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The central cornea of congenital cataract-extracted eyes was significantly thicker than that of controls.