Corneal endothelial ring following the implantation of toric implantable collamer lenses with a central hole: a case report

BACKGROUND: To report a case of a corneal endothelial ring after toric implantable collamer lens (TICL, V4C) implantation in the right eye of a patient. CASE PRESENTATION: A 36-year-old woman with refractive errors of -8.00 DS/-2.00 DC * 8° in the right eye and − 6.50 DS/-1.75 DC * 177° in the left eye developed a corneal endothelial ring in the right eye on the first day after receiving TICLs implantation for treatment of high myopic astigmatism, which has not been previously reported as a complication of ICLs implantation. At 1 day postoperatively, the uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) was 20/16, the intraocular pressure as measured by non-contact tonometry was 16.9 mmHg, and the vault as measured by anterior segment optical coherence tomography was 1238 μm. The eye was quiet and there was no unusual anterior chamber reaction. However, slit-lamp examination revealed an endothelial annular lesion of approximately 0.4 mm in diameter in the central part of the cornea, which was gray-white in color. The shape of the ring was the same as that of the central hole of the TICL. Specular microscopy showed that the mean endothelial cell density (ECD) of the ring significantly decreased to 1442 ± 263 cells/mm(2), while the other part was still normal (2852 ± 103 cells/mm(2)). After 9 days of corticosteroid treatment and intense lubrication, the patient had a clear cornea, increased ECD (1532 ± 653 cells/mm(2)), and a good UDVA (20/16). CONCLUSION: This case suggests that a few hours after ICL V4C implantation, with a large vault, corneal displacement caused by an air puff would make the endothelium close to or even contact the ICL, producing a corneal endothelial ring. After ruling out various possible factors, we speculated that the endothelial ring was developed due to the non-contact tonometer air puff before slit-lamp evaluation, and this phenomenon was recorded by Corvis, which confirmed that the cornea could come in contact with the ICL due to gas shock. This “contact” may cause transient corneal endothelial damage. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12886-022-02712-4.