[Electrophysiological changes of the retina after hypothermic vitreous surgery]

Local ocular hypothermia has been introduced as a possible alternative to performing intraocular surgery at the room temperature. The authors evaluated experimentally the effect of prolonged local hypothermia on the ERG. 22 rabbits underwent pars plana vitrectomy followed by continuous irrigation of the vitreous cavity for 1 hour. In the right eye, the temperature of the irrigating solution was 7 degrees C which lowered the intravitreal temperature to 15 degrees C; in the left eye, the solution was at room temperature and the intravitreal temperature was 24 degrees C. Flash ERG was performed pre-operatively and one week postoperatively on all eyes. There was no statistically significant difference in the post-operative ERG changes between the right and left eyes. The authors concluded that no harmful ERG changes were detected as near as 1 week following exposure to hypothermia for 1 hour.