Scanning electron microscopy study of experimental intraocular lens implantation in the rabbit eye.

Extracapsular surgery was performed on a rabbit eye for implantation of a lobster-claw or iris-bridge type intraocular lens (IOL). The incision was closed with stainless steel-vanadium sutures of 50 micron diameter. Two months after implantation, one pincer of the lens became detached from the iris, causing an intermittent IOL-endothelial touch of four months duration. It resulted in endothelial disruption with localized breaks in Descemet's membrane. Six months after implantation, the IOL and the entire anterior segment were removed and processed for scanning electron microscopy. The lobster-claw lens had been covered partly with a membrane, composed of different types of cells with many microvilli, particularly in the vicinity of the loophole of the intact iris bridge. The sutures were almost completely covered with somewhat irregular endothelial cells and an intact Descemet's membrane. At isolated spots where the covering was incomplete, elongated cells with many microvilli bordered the open areas. At the site of breaks, Descemet's membrane was denuded and in the process of being repopulated with cells. At places of minor disruption, elongated and triangular-shaped endothelial cells, often having many microvilli and interconnections with philopodia-like extensions, were about to cover the "wounded" area.