Greenish discoloration of silicone intraocular lens.

Dear Editor,

Recently there has been a series of reports of greenish discoloration of silicone intraocular lens (IOL) in the literature. Siddeque et al.1 reported greenish discoloration of a CeeOn 911A IOL, Ashraf et al.2 reported greenish discoloration of an AMO SI-30NB silicone IOL and recently Sathyan et al.3 reported greenish discoloration of two cases of Allergan SI-40NB silicone IOL.

We noted a green discoloration of a silicone IOL (Allergan SI-40NB, serial number: 1621950304, overall length 13.0 mm; optic size 6.0 mm) occurring in the right eye of a 60-year- old healthy female patient who underwent uneventful phacoemulsification in November 2003. No intraocular dye (trypan blue or indocyanine green) was used to stain the anterior capsule. Her postoperative period was uneventful for one month. Patient was examined after 34 months for complaints of gradual loss of vision in the fellow left eye due to cataract. There were no visual complaints and the patient had a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/20 with normal color vision and contrast sensitivity in the operated right eye. Slit- lamp examination with slit and diffuse illumination [Fig. 1] showed a normal anterior segment with homogeneous green appearance of the IOL affecting the entire optic. The patient was unwilling to undergo IOL replacement and therefore no laboratory analysis of the IOL could be performed.

Figure 1

Greenish discoloration of silicone intraocular lens

This is the fourth case report in the recent past of greenish discoloration of silicone IOL. In all the five cases the patients were unwilling to undergo IOL replacement and therefore the reason for the color change could not be ascertained.