Retinal blood flow alterations associated with scleral buckling and encircling procedures.

Abstract

The bidirectional laser Doppler technique and monochromatic photography were used to measure the absolute blood flow rate in the majortemporal retinal arteries in seven patients foliowing unilateral scleral buckling and encircling procedures, and in two patients before and after removal of scleral buckling elements. In the seven patients who had undergone uncomplicated scleral buckling procedures the arterial flow rates were on average 50% lower (p=0-01) in the surgicaily treated eyes than in the contralateral eyes. Removal of scleral buckling elements in two patients produced increases of 73% and 44% in arterial blood flow rates.In the current study we used the newer bidirectional laser Doppler technique and monochromatic retinal photography to measure for the first time absolute retinal blood flow rates in seven patients who had undergone unilateral scleral buckling procedures for the repair of retinal detachment. Specifically we compared the blood flow rates measured in retinal arteries of surgically treated eyes with the flow rates measured in corresponding arteries in fellow eyes. In two additional patients who experienced complications after scleral buckling procedures absolute blood flow rates were measured in retinal arteries before and after removal of the buckling elements.

Changes in Higher-Order Aberrations after Scleral Buckling Surgery for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment

“…Several pre-and postoperative factors such as the long duration of macular detachment, alterations in retinochoroidal circulation, and ciliary edema have been reported to be associated with poor visual outcomes of the scleral buckling surgery. [26][27][28][29][30] Our results revealed that the mean comaand spherical-like aberrations at 3 postoperative months were 0.385 ± 0.267 and 0.271 ± 0.156, respectively. Pesudovs et al revealed that coma-and spherical-like aberrations for 6-mm pupils in patients with various types of spherical intraocular lenses (IOLs) were 0.37-0.51 and 0.36-0.60, respectively.…”

Comparison of Scleral Buckling and Vitrectomy for Retinal Detachment Resulting from Flap Tears in Superior Quadrants

“…While a drastic change in the intraocular environment has been emphasized with vitrectomy, choroidal circulation disturbance does occur following scleral buckling 24 and a high incidence of macula edema after scleral buckling has been reported. 25 We have also experienced a case in which postscleral buckling visual acuity had dropped significantly in eyes with intact macula and good preoperative vision (unpublished data).…”

Retinal Blood Flow Increases following Short-Term Aspirin Usage in Type I Diabetics with No or Minimal Retinopathy

“…The methodology of our application of the laser Doppler technique to measurement of centerline blood speed in retinal arteries has been described in detail [34]. Modifications to the methodology have also been described [35]. Our projection micrometry technique for measurement of arterial diameters using mono chromatic photographs has also been described [36].…”