[Corneal endothelial cells in cicatricial retinopathy of prematurity].

We investigated corneal endothelial cells with specular microscopy in 40 children with cicatricial retinopathy of prematurity. Seventy-seven eyes were divided into 4 groups based on birth weight (< 1,000 g: group 1; > or = 1,000 g: group 2) and therapy at acute proliferative phase (xenon photocoagulation: group A; none: group B). Each morphological parameter, mean cell area, cell density, coefficient of variation (CV) and hexagonality, was compared between the two groups statistically according to Student's t-test. The mean cell area in group 1-A (233.3 +/- 17.2 microns 2) was significantly smaller than in groups 1-B (255.9 +/- 21.0 microns 2) and 2-A (250.5 +/- 23.5 microns 2) (p < 0.01). It seemed that corneal endothelial development is poor at lower birth weight. No significant difference was found between the parameters of groups 2-A and 2-B. Moreover, CV and hexagonality showed no significant difference in all comparisons. These results strongly suggested that xenon photocoagulation in the active phase of retinopathy of prematurity had little influence on endothelial morphology, at least after a long interval. Four eyes in group 1-A, however, had larger CV (0.3-0.4) and smaller hexagonality (< 60%), suggesting that the cell damage might be caused by xenon absorption by the cornea of extremely low-birth-weight infants.