SUMMARY Long-term assessment of eyes in which silicone oil injection had been used in the treatment of retinal detachment with massive preretinal retraction was undertaken in 92 consecutive patients. While a high incidence of complications, particularly cataract, was confirmed, this study showed that they were probably caused not by any toxic effect of silicone oil but by obstruction of normal metabolic exchange at the silicone-tissue interface. The incidence of complications causing deterioration of vision or serious symptoms was not found to be high, and navigating vision was well preserved.
One hundred and twenty-four eyes with a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, considered to be at high risk of failure if treated conventionally, underwent vitrectomy and internal tamponade, with or without scleral buckling, as the primary procedure. The retina was reattached in 64.5% of eyes after one operation, 75.0% after two, and in 83% of eyes after more than two operations, with no difference in the success rate between those eyes which underwent vitrectomy alone, and those that received adjunctive scleral buckling; duration of surgery was significantly shorter, however, in the former group. Twenty percent of eyes redetached in association with proliferative vitreoretinopathy, and 20% of phakic eyes developed posterior subcapsular lens opacities after surgery. Vitrectomy is now an established method in the management of selected cases of rhegmatogenous retinal detachments.
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