Purpose: To investigate the optimal strategy for surgical management of traumatic cataract with posterior capsular rupture.
Methods: We describe four cases of traumatic cataract with posterior capsular rupture and an in vitro model built to evaluate the optimal infusion pressure during surgery.
Results: All patients underwent cataract surgery. By using an anterior chamber maintainer to elevate infusion pressure, we safely performed cataract extraction without phacoemulsification. At 3 days after surgery, visual acuity was greater than 20/25 in all patients, without any complications. Phacoemulsification would also be feasible under anterior chamber maintainer infusion in a similar case of traumatic cataract with posterior capsular rupture during intravitreal injection. In addition, an in vitro model that we established using pig's eyes revealed that the anterior chamber remained stable when the height of infusion bottle was 50-90 mmHg, whereas shallowing of the anterior chamber occurred when the height of infusion bottle was reduced to 40 mmHg, and corneal edema occurred when the height of infusion bottle was raised to 100 mmHg.
Conclusions: During management of traumatic cataract with posterior capsular rupture, using an anterior chamber maintainer to maintain optimal infusion pressure may reduce the risk of anterior hyaloid membrane breakup and vitreous loss.