THE BIOCOMPATIBILITY OF SILICONE-IOLS

Background In order to the biocompatibility of silicone intraocular le nses, which is described contradictory in literature, we compared IOLs made of silicone caoutchouc and PMMA-IOLs with regards to the presenc e of macrophages (i.e. giant cells or spindle-shaped cells) in a prosp ective, randomized study. Patients and Methods: Totally 125 patients w ere examined 2 months post-operatively with the slitlamp in the refrac tive zone. The single-piece PMMA-IOLs with an open haptic used in this study had a 6 mm optical zone and a total diameter of 11 mm; the sili cone-IOLs were disc-shaped lenses with a total diameter of 9,75 mm and an optical zone of 6 or 5,5 mm, resp. Results Giant cells were observ ed with 16% of PMMA-lenses and 19% of the silicone-lenses. The maximal density of the giant cells on the PMMA-lenses at the median was 3/mm2 compared to 2/mm2 on the silicone IOLs. Small and spindle-shaped cell s were found in 54% of the PMMA-IOLs and 46% of the silicone-lenses. T he maximal cell density at the median was 10/mm2 with both lens types. Conclusions The differences between the two lens materials are statis tically non-significant. Thus, silicone caoutchouc and PMMA possess a comparable biocompatibility when used as material for intraocular lens es.