Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess whether the intraoperative use of the cold eye irrigation balanced salt solution (BSS) could have a protective effect in preventing the anterior chamber flare and conjunctival hyperemia and, thus, in reducing patients discomfort after phacoemulsification.
Materials and methods: About 214 patients were enrolled and randomly divided into: patients whose eye were irrigated with BSS at ~ 20°C (Group 1) and patients whose eye were irrigated with BSS at 2.7°C (Group 2). Anterior chamber flare, visual analogue score and conjunctival hyperemia were evaluated at 1, 3, 5, and 30 days after surgery.
Results: In patients of Group 2 the anterior chamber flare, the visual analogue score and the conjunctival hyperemia, used as parameters to evaluated clinical inflammation, at 1 day after surgery were significantly lower than those in Group 1 who received BSS solution at operating room temperature (p < 0.001), while at day 3, 5, and 30 there were not any significant differences.
Conclusion: Our study provided evidence supporting the efficacy of the treatment with cold irrigation solution on reduction of anterior chamber flare, pain and conjunctival hyperemia already at 1 day after phacoemulsification, suggesting that cooling procedure was fully effective at controlling early post-operative inflammation.
Keywords: Phacoemulsification; anterior chamber flare; cold irrigation balanced salt solution; conjunctival hyperemia; pain.