Background: The aim was to study the effects of distilled deionized water (DDW) on lens epithelial cells (LECs) after two different exposure times in the context of preventing posterior capsule opacification (PCO) after phacoemulsification.
Material/methods: Twenty-one subjects (21 eyes) (12 women, 9 men), with a mean age of 74.5 + or - 7.1 years, were in this study. Anterior capsulotomy specimens obtained during cataract phacoemulsification were immersed in a hypotonic solution of DDW. In group I (10 eyes) the anterior capsule fragments were exposed to DDW for 1 minute and in group II (11 eyes) for 3 minutes. The fragments then underwent histological examination; photographic documentation was made and measurements were done with an image analysis system. Log-linear analysis was performed to determine the odds ratio (OR). The significance of particular histological findings was evaluated with Fisher's exact test and Kendall's tau b coefficient was determined by analyzing contingency tables.
Results: Basement membrane and LECs showing different degrees of damage, from vacuolar degeneration to epithelial detachment and from karyorrhexis to total cytolysis, were detected in the microscopic specimens. The probability of lens epithelial cell cytolysis after 3-minute exposure was 3.5 times higher than after 1-minute exposure to DDW.
Conclusions: Exposure to DDW causes different degrees of damage to LECs, ranging from reversible changes to total cell death. The changes seen in LECs are dependent on the duration of their exposure to DDW.