Phacoanaphylactic endophthalmitis associated with extracapsular cataract extraction and posterior chamber intraocular lens.

We describe the clinicopathologic findings in a patient who underwent extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) with insertion of a posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL). The patient had a sterile hypopyon and anterior uveitis that temporarily subsided but recurred. The inflammation actually worsened after removal of the IOL, and the eye was enucleated. Histopathologic examination showed a pattern consistent with phacoanaphylactic endophthalmitis. We therefore postulate that the patient's complications were due to hypersensitivity to her own lens protein, which remained after the ECCE, rather than to the IOL itself.