Comparison of intracapsular and extracapsular cataract surgery. Histopathologic study of eyes obtained postmortem.

Abstract We examined 201 consecutive aphakic and pseudophakic eyes postmortem. Of these, 146 eyes had undergone intracapsular cataract extraction (ICCE) and 55 eyes had undergone extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE), either with the posterior capsule preserved intact (ECCE-Cl, 30 eyes) or having had a surgical discission performed (ECCE-D, 25 eyes). Wound-related complications were most numerous in the ICCE group, and this probably reflects the relatively recent development of microsurgical techniques. Posterior vitreous detachment was present in 84% of eyes following ICCE, in 76% of eyes following ECCE-D, and in 40% of eyes following ECCE-Cl ( P