Effects of Kakkon-to and Sairei-to on aqueous flare elevation after complicated cataract surgery

We evaluate prospectively the effects of traditional herbal medicines on elevation of aqueous flare after complicated cataract surgery. Twenty-seven patients with bilateral complicated cataract undergoing phacoemulsification with intraocular lens implantation were studied. The patients received no herbal medicine when the right eyes underwent cataract surgery. Fifteen patients were given Kakkon-to (Ge-Gen-Tang in Chinese) granules (7.5 g daily) and 12 patients were given Sairei-to (Cai-Ling-Tang in Chinese) granules (9.0 g daily), for 3 days before surgery, the day of surgery, and for 7 days after surgery when the left eyes underwent cataract surgery. Diclofenac eyedrops were instilled in all patients. Aqueous flare was measured before and after surgery. The differences in preoperative flare intensities between groups treated with Kakkon-to and Sairei-to were not significant. In the untreated right eyes of the Kakkon-to and Sairei-to groups, the flare was 99.1 and 89.6 photon counts/msec, respectively, on day 1, and then gradually decreased. The flare intensities on days 1, 3, and 5 in the Kakkon-to treated left eyes were significantly lower than in those of the untreated right eyes (Fig. 1). The flare intensities in the Sairei-to treated left eyes were the same as those in the untreated right eyes. Kakkon-to contributed to a reduction of aqueous flare elevation after surgery for complicated cataract.