Recent studies of diabetic corneal epitheliopathy have shown that diabetic aphakic patients suffer from an enlarged cell area. This study focuses on a 41-year-old diabetic woman whose mean cell area before treatment was 1,101 +/- 275 microns 2. Seven months after treatment it decreased to 723 +/- 253 microns 2. This case shows that through the application of topical aldose reductase inhibitor, the mean cell area in diabetic aphakic patients can decrease toward a normal number.