a 68-year - old male presented with grade 4 nuclear cataract with visual acuity of 20/200 in the left eye . he had best corrected visual acuity of 20/200 in the right eye and examination of that eye revealed normal pseudophakia with age - related macular degeneration . stretch pupilloplasty was done for rigid pupil and intraoperative iris trauma was also recorded . at the end of surgery , hydration of the main incision and side ports was done . on first postoperative follow - up , inferior half corneal edema with descemet 's detachment from inferotemporal side port extending to lower one - third of cornea was noted . but persistent descemet 's detachment and corneal edema was noted on second and third postoperative day . 1.4% sodium hyaluronate was injected after which he developed an intraocular pressure ( iop ) of 40 mm of hg with persisting descemet 's detachment . on the fourth postoperative day , anterior chamber wash to clear viscoelastic was done and 0.2 ml of perfluro - n - octane was injected as a single bubble using a 26-gauge needle introduced through superotemporal peripheral cornea . the patient was given immediate head end elevated position which he was advised to maintain for 2 weeks . from the fifth postoperative day onward , the descemet 's membrane was found attached . initially , the area of descemet 's detachment was seen as faintly thickened [ fig . 1 ] which resolved at 1 week after perfluro - n - octane injection [ fig . 2 ] . fifteen days after perfluro - n - octane injection , the bubble was aspirated and thorough anterior chamber wash was given . at no point in follow - up after perfluro - n - octane injection , elevated iop or uveitis was noted . at 6 weeks the central corneal thickness by ultrasonic pachymetry was 517 m before phacoemulsification , 782 m before intervention with perfluro - n - octane and 520 m after removal of perfluro - n - octane . specular microscopy was performed at another center at 6 months follow - up with endothelial cell density of 2639 cells / mm in the right eye and 2481 cells / mm in the left eye . perfluro - n - octane bubble in anterior chamber with the area of descemet 's detachment seen as faint thickening . the superior extent of the area of descemet 's detachment is highlighted by the arrow heads haziness in the area of descemet 's detachment has cleared by 1 week . perflurocarbon liquids bubble is seen in anterior chamber one - month follow - up showing clear cornea with no evidence of descemet 's detachment descemet 's detachment can be instrument induced ( scroll like ) or due to injection of fluid ( attached to stroma all around the detachment ) . descemet 's membrane detachment can also be classified into planar type with the descemet 's membrane separation of less than 1 mm and non - planar type with a separation of greater than 1 mm . planar detachments are more likely to resolve spontaneously , and non - planar detachments should be repaired early . small localized descemet 's detachment usually resolves spontaneously , but large one needs intervention in the form of intracameral air , c3f8 or viscoelastic . since air or gas floats up , inferior descemet 's detachment extending to periphery of cornea may not get attached as in our case . perflurocarbon liquids ( pfcls ) were initially developed as blood substitute for their property to transport oxygen and their biologic inertness . pfcl is used because of high specific gravity and immiscibility with water for complex retinal procedures like giant retinal tear surgery . few reports about retained pfcl in anterior chamber after vitreo - retinal surgery are available in literature , which suggest inflammatory response and corneal toxicity after prolonged exposure of several months . toxicity with pfcl occurs due to hydrogen containing compounds , unsaturated carbon bonds and impurities like compounds with nitrogen bonds and hydrogen fluoride containing compounds . , based on their in vitro study on the effect of perflurodecalin on human retinal pigment epithelium and corneal endothelium , suggest the damage is caused by mechanical effect on cell function by impeding the normal metabolic exchange . caution against the use of pfcl for short- or long - term retinal tamponade in aphakic eyes considering the anterior segment toxicity of pfcl . but weinberger et al . followed up seven eyes with retained pfcl in anterior chamber for a mean follow - up of 9.4 months and showed that retained pfcl in anterior segment did not cause corneal toxicity or ocular inflammation . we have observed a patient with retained perfluro - n - octane bubble in anterior chamber following dislocated nucleus removal via anterior chamber for 3 months without inflammation or elevated iop ( not reported ) . based on the personal experience of that case , we decided to manage this patient with pfcl ( perfluro - n - octane ) . the difference in endothelial cell density between the two eyes was 158 cells / mm . in routine cataract surgery , an endothelial cell loss of 210% , and in complicated cataract surgery a loss of 1620% is possible . in the case being reported here , the difference in specular count between the two eyes was less than 10% and this loss can be explained by the descemet 's detachment as well as by the repeated manipulations . the central corneal thickness almost approximated the pre - operative thickness after removing pfcl though the pfcl bubble was in contact with nearly 50% of central cornea . hence , we consider that perfluro - n - octane was effective in attaching inferior descemet 's detachment and safe in anterior chamber for a period of 2 weeks in this patient intervened by us . this is the first case of inferior descemet 's detachment managed by intracameral pfcl to be reported as far as our knowledge is concerned ( pubmed key words used were descemet 's detachment + cataract surgery , repair of descemet 's detachment , descemet 's detachment + perfluro - n - octane , descemet 's detachment + pfcl , intracameral pfcl ) .