Use of Na-hyaluronate during intraocular lens implantation in rabbits.

It is now established that there is a destructive biophysical interaction between a plastic intraocular lens and the corneal endothelium during intraocular lnes implantation. In the present study , Na-hyaluronate was placed into the anterior chamber of one eye of 20 rabbits, after lens extraction and prior to pseudophake implantation, in an attempt to protect the corneal endothelium. The other eye of each rabbit was subjected to a lens extraction and pseudophake implantation in the conventional manner. During the 4-week postoperative period, it was observed that the eye treated with Na-hyaluronate showed significantly less corneal edema as well as less iris engorgement and edema.