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Published on: February 15, 2022
Macular microcirculation blood flow after pars plana vitrectomy with silicone oil tamponade
Agnieszka Kubicka-Trzaska1, Joanna Kobylarz, Bozena Romanowska-Dixon
1Clinic of Ophthalmology and Ocular Oncology, Department of Ophthalmology, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Krakow, Poland. akubicka@onet.pl
Purpose:
To assess the macular microcirculation blood flow with Doppler laser scanning (HRF-Heidelberg Retinal Flowmeter), in patients with complicated rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD), after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), with silicone oil tamponade.
Material And Methods:
Eleven patients (6 males and 5 females), aged 38-64 years, mean age: 52.4 years, with unilateral macula-on complicated RRD were included in a study. In all cases conventional (20-gauge) pars plana vitectomy with silicone oil tamponade was performed. Control group consists of the fellow eyes.
Results:
In the early postoperative period (1-3 days after surgery), in all operated eyes the mean values of macular microcirculation blood flow were significantly reduced in the comparison with those of the control eyes (p = 0.01). The reduction of mean values of macular microcirculation blood flow was still observed in all silicone-oil-filled eyes one month after surgery as compared to the contralateral eyes (p = 0.01). There was no correlation between the values of macular microcirculation blood flow and the duration of RRD, baseline BCVA, refractive error, number of retinal tears, and the patient age.
Conclusions:
The preliminary results of this study suggest that PPV with silicone oil tamponade influences over the retinal blood flow. We have observed that silicone oil may have a negative long-term effect on the retinal microcirculation as it was noted one month after surgery.

