What causes loss of endothelial cells?

Endothelial cell loss, caused by intraoperative trauma to the donor tissue, is one of the most common complications reported after DMEK. The average endothelial cell loss is 32%158,159 at 6 months, 36% at 1 year,163,168 and 42% at 3 years169 following DMEK.

What is an eye cell count?

A corneal cell count will tell you how many endothelial cells are present in the inner layer of your cornea. Ophthalmologists in our Fort Lauderdale office do not routinely perform this procedure, but it may be used to evaluate the cornea before cataract surgery or in specific types of corneal diseases.

What is corneal endothelial cell loss?

CECs, or corneal endothelial cells, unfortunately, are lost with age. This natural reduction rarely presents a clinical problem unless the loss of cells is unusually aggressive, such as in Fuchs’ dystrophy, or there is excess cell loss that might occur with trauma, typically surgical.

What’s the normal cell count for a cornea?

There is a normal, progressive and slow loss of endothelial cells with aging. By age 40 or so, the cell count has dropped to about 3,000 cells/mm2. By age 70 or 80, this may be 2,000 cells/mm2. At this cell count, there are still plenty of healthy cells to maintain corneal clarity.

What is the normal endothelial cell count in the eye?

With aging the cell count will decline to approximately 2000 to 3000 cells/mm2 in a normal adult eye. A cornea with an endothelial cell count of 500 cells/mm2 or less is at risk of decompensation, which may eventually result in corneal oedema1.

Is the left eye normal under a specular microscope?

The dilated fundus examination was unremarkable. Specular microscopy data from the left eye shows normal cell counts, but abnormal CV and HEX indicates pleomorphism is occurring ( figure 2 ). The left endothelial cell layer clearly shows blurred cell margins.

What is the percentage of hexagonal cells in the corneal?

The coefficient of variation (CV) in the cell size was 58.1 ± 22.6 (range, 26.8 – 134) and the percentage of hexagonal cells was 44.3 ± 11.5% (range, 22 – 83%).