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Published on: August 2, 2013
Histopathological analysis in experimental macular surgery with trypan blue
S Grisanti1, P Szurman, O Tatar
1Department of Ophthalmology I, Eberhard-Karls University of Tuebingen, Schleichstrasse 12-15, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany. salvatore.grisanti@med.uni-tuebingen.de
Aim:
To analyse the effect of trypan blue on the retina in an experimental setting of macular surgery.
Methods:
Porcine eyes were used within 3 hours after death. The eyes were hemisected and the vitreous removed. Trypan blue (0.15%) was applied over the trephined posterior pole, whereas the rest of the eye cup was filled with a balanced salt solution (BSS). The dye and the BSS were removed after 1 minute and the complete eye cup irrigated and filled with fresh BSS. Both the treated and untreated retinas were illuminated with a standard surgical light pipe and source at maximum power for 10 minutes. Both the trypan blue exposed retina and the non-treated surrounding retina were processed for histology.
Results:
Exposure of the retina to trypan blue for 1 minute, followed by illumination caused no histologically detectable damage compared to the controls. No microarchitectural disorganisation, cellular disruption, or affection of the vitreoretinal interface was detected.
Conclusions:
These findings indicate that a 1 minute exposure of trypan blue followed by illumination does not cause an acute morphologically detectable toxic effect on the porcine retina.
