Topical aqueous suppression does not significantly affect duration of intraocular gas tamponade after vitrectomy

To determine if topical aqueous suppression affects the duration of intraocular sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas tamponade after pars plana vitrectomy.

A prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted on patients undergoing 23-gauge sutured pars plana vitrectomy with air-fluid exchange and 20% SF6 gas tamponade. Eyes were randomly assigned to receive either postoperative topical dorzolamide 2%-timolol 0.5% twice a day or no additional drops (control group). Standard postoperative topical antibiotics and corticosteroids were used by all patients.

A total of 21 patients were recruited for the study. Four were excluded because of noncompliance with use of dorzolamide-timolol. In the remaining 17 patients, 8 were randomly assigned to the dorzolamide-timolol group and 9 to the control group. Topical dorzolamide-timolol drops twice a day did not affect the duration of SF6 gas tamponade after pars plana vitrectomy (17.1 vs. 18.1 days with no drops, P = 0.35). The difference in mean gas duration was -1.0 days with a 95% confidence interval of -3.2 days to 1.2 days. Secondary analyses did not reveal a difference in SF6 duration based on lens status, presence of diabetes or hypertension, vitrectomy versus combined buckle with vitrectomy, or patient age.

Topical aqueous suppression with dorzolamide-timolol does not have a large effect on duration of SF6 gas tamponade after pars plana vitrectomy.