Table 1. Pre and postoperative aqueous cytokine response following cataract surgery

Patient groups: general anesthesia with (GA+) and without (GA-) ketamine, and local anesthesia (LA). Cataract classification: nuclear opalescence (NO) and nuclear color (NC), and cortical (C) and posterior subcapsular (P) lens opacities. Anterior chamber inflammation: aqueous flare (F), scale 1-4; cells (C) in the anterior chamber, that is, number of cells in a 0.2 mm beam graded as 0 (no cells), 1 (1-3 cells) and 2 (3-5 cells). Effective phacoemulsification time (EPT) is the product of average power and time. Aqueous cytokines: interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα), interferon (IFN)-γ, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1). Note the comparative changes in the pre and postoperative levels of the measured aqueous cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-2. Also compare with Table 3 for serum responses of these cytokines. There were no differences between the three patient groups and no correlation with grade of cataract or EPT.