The effect of phacoemulsification on corneal endothelial cell density

J. Sugar, J. Mitchelson and M. Kraff

Seventy-six patients who had undergone unilateral phacoemulsification of cataracts had their endothelial cell density (ECD) measured by specular microscopy. When compared with the unoperated contralateral eye, there was a mean decrease in ECD of 33.8%. Ten patients who had undergone unilateral intracapsular cataract extraction had a mean decrease in ECD of 14.9%. Cataract extraction by phacoemulsification appears to be more traumatic to the corneal endothelium than is intracapsular extraction.