Tolerance of the eye for implanted cilia.

Retained cilia in the eye following injury are rare. There are reports of long term tolerance to cilia in the anterior chamber but no information about the effect on the corneal endothelium. A 31-year-old man was seen with a 19-year history of a retained eyelash embedded in a corneal scar and extending across the anterior chamber to the chamber angle. The follicle was absent. There was no cellular inflammatory reaction, and the eye otherwise appeared normal on slit-lamp examination with normal vision. However, there was the appearance of an encrusted deposit on the surface of the lash and a markedly lowered endothelial cell count of 750 cells/mm2 compared with the fellow eye. The lash was not removed.