Anterior chamber inflammation after transconjunctival cryosurgery

Abstract

Transconjunctival cryosurgery caused mild inflammation in the anterior chamber of the eye for 3 weeks. The inflammation was not affected by the presence of retinal break or limited retinal detachment, the degree of myopia, or the extent of the treatment area.

Evaluation of the blood–aqueous barrier by laser flare cell photometry following retinal cryocoagulation

“…In a study on the treatment of peripheral retinal degeneration with retinal cryocoagulation, an increase in aqueous flare 1, 2, and 3 weeks after surgery was found; however, 4 weeks after treatment the flare values returned to normal [32]. Peak values were reached 2 weeks after cryo (6.7 photon counts/ms).…”

“…On the other hand, a breakdown of the blood-aqueous and blood-retinal barriers has been reported to occur after retinal cryocoagulation, which has for many years caused this treatment modality to be regarded as somewhat questionable [5,6,23,30,32]. Other disadvantages, such as tractional retinal detachment and even overfreeze, added to the generally negative impression, but these were eventually found to be related to an outdated cryo application technique with a 360°peritomy, cryo application without visualization of the retina by indirect ophthalmoscopy, or even disinsertion of the rectus muscles [15,16,20,25].…”

“…This could be explained by the fact that our study population of patients with proliferative retinal diseases already had a disruption of the blood-retinal barrier, which thus led to higher baseline flare values and possibly to a faster and higher increase in values after treatment. The higher level of aqueous flare after treatment might also be due to the larger number of cryo lesions applied: We used a panretinal treatment, whereas only focal cryocoagulation was applied in the degeneration study [32].…”

“…In cases where panretinal photocoagulation is not possible because of vitreous hemorrhage, retinal cryocoagulation is required [7,20,22,25,28,31]. However, disruption of the blood-aqueous and blood-retinal barriers has been reported as a major problem after extensive retinal cryocoagulation [5,6,23,30,32].…”

Cryotherapy of sclerotomy sites for prevention of late post-vitrectomy diabetic hemorrhage: a randomized clinical trial

“…Consequently, the production of angiogenic factors and hence the formation of anterior retinal neovascularizations are decreased. The increased risk of hemorrhage in our study might be due to a cryotherapy-induced blood-retinal barrier breakdown, which might have stimulated the release of inflammatory and angiogenic mediators such as vascular endothelial growth factor [5,22]. These elements potentially might aggravate the development and/or progression of fibrovascular tissue, and hence increase the risk of recurrent VH.…”