Polishing the posterior capsule after extracapsular extraction of senile cataract.

Posterior capsular polishing is performed to delay or prevent capsular opacification. To study its effectiveness, a prospective study of 412 patients with bilateral senile cataracts was conducted. Each patient had bilateral extracapsular cataract extraction with laser ridge, posterior chamber lens implantation. The right eye of each patient had posterior capsular polishing using the Tennessee-Freeman polisher. The posterior capsule in the left eye was not polished. All patients above the age of 80 years (22 patients) had bilateral opacification within 16 months postoperatively. For patients less than 80 years old (390 patients), the cumulative capsulotomy rate in the polished capsule group was 9.2% (36 eyes); in the unpolished capsule group the rate was 12.0% (47 eyes) for the same follow-up time (average 30 months). There was no statistical difference in the incidence of posterior capsular opacification between the polished and unpolished groups. Polishing the posterior capsule after lens cortex cleaning had no significant role in delaying or preventing capsular opacification.