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

ABSTRACT

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.