Purpose: To compare the postoperative reaction in pediatric aphakic eyes to intercapsular intraocular lens (IOL) implantation with fluorine-modified poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) IOLs and with unmodified IOLs.
Setting: Pediatric Ophthalmology Unit, Purpan University Hospital, Toulouse, France.
Methods: In this retrospective study, 107 consecutive eyes in 82 children were operated on for cataracts and intercapsular implantation. From January 1985 to December 1993, 87 eyes (Group 1) received an all-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), single-piece IOL; during 1994, 20 eyes (Group 2) received an IOL of the same design that had been fluorine surface modified. Mean age of the patients was 64.5 months (range 15 days to 16 years). Postoperatively, each group was monitored for immediate inflammatory response from the first to the eighth day and for secondary cicatricial response from 6 months to 1 year.
Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in the early inflammatory response. Secondary cicatricial reaction was found more often in Group 1 in all age subgroups (P < .01), but especially 1 to 4 years (P < .02).
Conclusion: Fluorine modification of PMMA IOLs is an effective and safe method to reduce the cicatricial response when IOL implantation is used to correct pediatric aphakia.