Survival rate of corneal endothelial cells after cataract surgery with a background of glaucoma

Abstract

Glaucoma is one of the main causes of irreversible blindness worldwide. Up to 76% of the glaucoma cases are accompanied with complicated cataract. The issue of cataract treatment in glaucoma patients is a difficult task for any surgeon, for the surgical procedure itself can result in a number of complications. One of them is the loss of endothelial cells in the cornea. A decrease in the endothelial cell density in such patients occurs due to long-term use of various hypotensive drops, due to variations of intraocular pressure, as well as due to the surgical interventions themselves. Up to 16.9% of cataract removal cases with a background of glaucoma are accompanied by pronounced post-operative corneal swelling, which leads to an increased risk of losing corneal endothelial cells. The perspective branch of surgical treatment for cataract and glaucoma is the development of a unified algorithm taking into account the individual characteristics of the patient, such as the eye lens clouding, the glaucoma stage, the intraocular pressure, the past surgeries, the hypotensive therapy and the density of corneal endothelial cells.

Keywords

open-angle glaucoma / cataract / surgical treatment of cataracts / endothelial cells

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