The effect of perfluoropropane on the cornea in rabbits and cats
G. N. Foulks, E. de Juan, D. L. Hatchell, T. McAdoo and J. Hardin
The effects of perfluoropropane gas on the cornea were compared with those
of sulfur hexafluoride gas following injection into the anterior chamber of
rabbits and cats. Injection of 0.15 mL of gas produced a perfluoropropane
bubble that lasted 22 days compared with a sulfur hexafluoride bubble that
lasted seven days. The sulfur hexafluoride bubble produced corneal edema
for as long as the gas was present. With perfluoropropane, corneal edema
persisted even after the gas bubble disappeared. In another group of cats,
multiple sequential injections of sulfur hexafluoride to maintain a gas
bubble of duration comparable with the perfluoropropane bubble also
produced edema as long as gas was present. Clinical corneal edema,
endothelial fibrin deposition, endothelial opacities, and retrocorneal
membrane were observed by slit-lamp and light, scanning, and transmission
electron microscopic examinations of the corneas exposed to
perfluoropropane but not of those exposed to sulfur hexafluoride. Prolonged
corneal endothelial contact by perfluoropropane results in corneal edema
due to endothelial dysfunction, which persists in cats probably because
feline endothelium is less capable of regeneration than that of rabbit.
