Purpose: To report the potential effect of lens epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) following lens capsular reopening in three patients with long term chronic intraocular inflammation and mildly elevated intraocular pressure.
Methods: Observational study.
Results: Although the three patients had different histories of eye surgery and had experienced a long process of diagnosis and treatment, they had the following similarities: 1) They had undergone cataract surgery; 2) All of them had capsular bag opening or reopening and unexplained intraocular inflammation and elevated intraocular pressure for a long time, even up to more than one year; 3) The inflammation was eventually disappeared following complete clearance of the EMT derived material.
Conclusion: Our findings highlight the critical role of EMT derived material and capsular bag reopening in long-term post cataract surgery inflammation and pseudophakic ocular hypertension, and complete clearance of EMT derived material with surgical intervention should be considered if necessary.
Keywords: Capsular bag; YAG capsulotomy; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; immunoreaction; inflammation.