OBJECTIVE To explore the distribution of pathogenic bacteria isolated from the phacoemulsification patients complicated with postoperative infectious endophthalmitis (IE) and analyze the expression levels of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), serum amyloid A (SAA) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1).

METHODS A total of 4 713 patients who underwent the phacoemulsification in Shaoxing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Zhuji Central Hospital from Jan 2020 to Mar 2023 were enrolled in the study and were divided into the infection group with 25 cases and the non-infection group with 4 688 cases according to the status of postoperative IE. The distribution of the pathogens causing the infection, the levels of serum bFGF, SAA and IGF-1 were compared between the two groups, and the values of bFGF, SAA and IGF-1 in diagnosis of postoperative IE in the phacoemulsification patients were analyzed by means of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

RESULTS Among the 4713 cataract patients undergoing phacoemulsification, 25 were complicated with postoperative IE, with the incidence of IE 0.53%. Totally 25 strains of pathogens were isolated, 21 (84.00%) were gram-positive bacteria. The SAA level of the infection group was significantly higher than that of the non-infection group (P < 0.05), the levels of bFGF and IGF-1 of the infection group were significantly lower than those of the non-infection group(P < 0.05). The area under curve (AUC) of the joint detection of bFGF, SAA and IGF-1 was 0.938 in diagnosis of postoperative IE in the phacoemulsification patients, with the sensitivity 92.00%, the specificity 86.39%.

CONCLUSION The incidence of postoperative IE is high among the phacoemulsification patients, the gram-positive bacteria are dominant among the pathogens, the patients show the high expression of serum SAA and low expressions of bFGF and IGF-1, and the joint detection of the three indexes may raise the diagnostic value of postoperative IE in the phacoemulsification patients.