Corneal endothelial cell loss after trabeculectomy and phacoemulsification in one or two steps: a prospective study

Objective The objective of this study was to analyse the results of the surgical treatment of coexisting cataract and glaucoma and its effects on corneal endothelial cell density (CECD). Methods We include two longitudinal prospective studies: one randomised that included 40 eyes with open angle glaucoma that received one- ( n = 20) or two-step ( n = 20) phacotrabeculectomy and another that included 20 eyes that received phacoemulsification. We assess the impact of surgery on different clinical variables and in particular in CECD using Confoscan 4™ confocal microscopy and semiautomatic counting methods. Results Phacoemulsification and phacotrabeculectomy, but not trabeculectomy, increase significantly best-corrected visual acuity and anterior chamber depth and trabeculectomy and one- or two-step phacotrabeculectomy decreased similarly the intraocular pressure. We document percentages of endothelial cell loss of 3.1%, 17.9%, 31.6% and 42.6% after trabeculectomy, phacoemulsification and one- or two-step phacotrabeculectomy, respectively. The coefficient of variation did not increase significantly after surgery but the percentage of hexagonality decreased significantly after phacoemulsification and after two-step phacotrabeculectomy. Conclusions Trabeculectomy, phacoemulsification and phacotrabeculectomy are surgical techniques that cause morphological changes and decrease the densities of the corneal endothelial cells. Trabeculectomy produces lesser endothelial cell loss than phacoemulsification, and phacoemulsification lesser cell loss than phacotrabeculectomy. Two-step phacotrabeculectomy (trabeculectomy followed 3 months later by phacoemulsification) causes more cell loss than one-step phacotrabeculectomy, and this could be due to the cumulative effects of two separate surgical traumas or to a negative conditioning lesion effect of the first surgery. For the treatment of coexisting glaucoma and cataract, one-step phacotrabeculectomy is the treatment of choice.