Prevention of posterior capsule opacification by retinoic acid and mitomycin

Background: Our aim was to evaluate the effect of an intraoperative single dose of retinoic acid (RA) or mitomycin C (MMC) in preventing posterior cap sule opacification (PCO). Methods: Twenty-seven rabbits were divided random ly into three groups. RA (250 mug/ml) and MMC (0.04 mg/ml) were given 0.1 m l by hydrosection and 0.9 ml into the capsular bag after phacoemulsificatio n. The third group served as a control group. Three months after interventi on PCO was graded clinically. Furthermore, proliferation of lens epithelial cells was evaluated histologically. Results: Two eyes developed corneal ed ema in the MMC group. On clinical assessment, RA and MMC were significantly effective in preventing PCO compared with controls (P <0.005). On histolog ical analysis, there was significantly reduced proliferative activity on po sterior capsules in the treatment groups, in contrast to multilayer cells i n the control group. Conclusion: Intraoperative single-dose administration of RA and MMC significantly prevented the development of PCO in rabbit eyes . The optimal biocompatible dosage must be carefully determined by further investigation.