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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

A Highly Reproducible and Straightforward Method to Perform In Vivo Ocular Enucleation in the Mouse after Eye Opening
Published on: October 6, 2014
Snare technique for enucleation of eyes with advanced retinoblastoma
Vivian Schiedler1, Sander R Dubovy, Timothy G Murray
1Department of Ophthalmology, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. vivs@u.washington.edu
Abstract:
Retrospective analysis of surgical outcomes for enucleation in pediatric retinoblastoma stage 5B using the snare wire loop (n = 55) and standard curved enucleation scissors (n = 22) revealed that a statistically significant longer mean optic nerve length was obtained with the snare (13.35 mm) compared with scissors (11.05 mm; P = .005). Four scissor cases had prolonged bleeding and required thrombin (18.2%), but no snare cases had difficulty with hemostasis (P = .005). More crush artifact was seen with the snare than with scissors (P<.001), but this did not affect the ability to determine tumor involvement at the surgical margin. The enucleation snare should be considered a valuable surgical instrument in the small pediatric orbit since obtaining the longest optic nerve segment has prognostic implications in retinoblastoma.
