PCO prevention: IOL material versus IOL design

Abstract

Intraocular lens characteristics may influence the outcome of posterior capsule opacification. Different studies have described the possible roles of material and design on the prevention of this complication, which are discussed in this chapter. These include studies evaluating material properties, particularly adhesive properties leading to different patterns of protein adsorption on the lens surfaces. The most important intraocular lens feature in posterior capsule opacification prevention with in-the-bag fixated intraocular lenses was found to be the presence of a square edge on the posterior optic surface. Nevertheless, studies evaluating the microstructure of the edges of currently available foldable intraocular lenses found that all square edges in the market are not equally square. As a group, hydrophilic acrylic lenses were found to have less square edges than hydrophobic acrylic and silicone lenses. Furthermore, animal and clinical studies demonstrated that the square edge should be present for 360 around the lens optic, for maximal efficiency in terms of prevention of posterior capsule opacification.