Intraocular contamination during extracapsular cataract extraction with intraocular lens implantation

Ocular bacterial contamination has been studied in 45 eyes that underwent cataract surgery. The following samples were taken: (1) eyelid margin swab; (2) conjunctival swab; (3) aqueous humor after initial anterior chamber penetration; (4) anterior capsule fragment after capsulorrhexis or capsulotomy; (5) cortical lens material; (6) anterior chamber fluid after lens implantation. The percentages of contaminated samples were 15.5, 13.3, 0.0, 11.1, 13.3 and 6.6, respectively. There was a significant difference between the incidence of positive cultures in the aqueous humor at the time of incision and in subsequent intraocular samples. Positive cultures were found in 13 out of 45 eyes, only gram-positive organisms were recovered and coagulase-negative staphylococci were the most common (78.5% of the isolates). These results confirm previous reports on intraocular contamination during cataract surgery.