[Vitrectomy in uveitis]

Between January 1976 and December 1983, at the First University Eye Clinic in Vienna, 568 vitrectomies and 287 lensectomies were carried out; in 69 of these interventions (20 lensectomies and 49 vitrectomies) the diagnosis was uveitis. In 24 cases the indication for vitrectomy was an intermediary uveitis, a post-traumatic uveitis in 4 and a sympathetic uveitis in 6 cases as well as suppurative endophthalmitis in 7 patients. Indications for surgical removal of pathological tissue from the anterior chamber by the use of vitrectomy instrumentation were, in 4 cases each, hypopioniritis and a hemorrhagic uveitis, and in 12 cases a phacogenic uveitis. In about two thirds of this very heterogeneous patient material, employing vitrectomy made it possible to achieve regression of uveitis. In the remaining third of the patients, at least a stationary state of the disease was achieved and a reduction of corticosteroid and immunosuppressive therapy were made possible. The best functional results were achieved in all surgical interventions in the anterior ocular segment and in vitrectomies for intermediary uveitis. In suppurative endophthalmitis, however, these results were unfavorable.