Objective: To study the pathological changes and morphological features in the iris and ciliary body after lens extraction and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in rabbits and discuss the mechanism of postoperative intraocular inflammatory response.
Methods: 27 adult pigmented rabbits were divided into three groups, (1) extracapsular lens extraction and IOL implantation. (2) simple extracapsular lens extraction, and (3) the control group without surgical intervention. The iris and ciliary body in every eye were taken on the 1st, 7th and 14th days after surgery, their pathological changes were observed with light microscopy, and the number of inflammatory cells were counted. The data were analyzed by using analysis of variance of SAS software.
Results: The pathological changes might be divided into three stages: (1) acute inflammation and exudative changes in the early stage (on the 1st day postoperatively), (2) subacute inflammation and granuloma formation in the middle stage (on the 7th day postoperatively, and (3) chronic inflammation and fibrosis in the late stage (on the 14th day postoperatively).
Conclusion: The inflammatory cells in the iris and ciliary body are significantly higher in eyes with IOL implantation than that in eyes with simple extracapsular lens extraction (P < 0.01). Besides macrophages, there are many lymphocytes, eosinophils and plasma cells in the iris and ciliary body, suggesting that an active immune response exist in the inflammation.