The Incidence and the Clinical Course of Retinal Complications of Intracameral Cefuroxime in Cataract Surgery

Abstract

Aim. To determine the incidence and the clinical course of retinal complications of intracameral administration of cefuroxime in minimally invasive cataract surgery.Methods. From 2016 to 2021, a prospective clinical study was conducted at the Volga District Medical Center of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, which included patients with cataract in one or two eyes to be surgically treated. All patients received 1 mg of cefuroxime injected into the anterior chamber at the end of surgery. All patients underwent ophthalmological examination including evaluation of best corrected visual acuity with determination of logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), tonometry, biomicroscopy, and ophthalmoscopy. Each patient before and the day after surgery underwent optical coherence tomography of the retina on a spectral optical tomograph RTVue-100 (Optovue). The dynamics of the condition was evaluated on days 3 and 7 after surgery.Results. Five cases of retinal complications of intracameral cefuroxime injection were identified during the 5-year study period. According to data of optical coherence tomography, retinal edema was localized in the internal nuclear layer of the retina, and the height of serous retinal detachment in the fovea area on the next day after surgery was 315.0 ± 11.0 µm and reduced statistically significantly to 59.8 ± 42.3 µm on the 3rd day after the intervention (p = 0.043). One week later, all patients had complete retinal adherence and recovery of visual function. Retinal edema did not recur in the long term after surgery.Conclusion. Serous retinal detachment with macular edema is the most common clinically relevant complication of intracameral antibiotic prophylaxis, which develops both in compliance with the dilution protocol and in overdose, and has a favourable prognosis.