Surgical management of black ball hyphema with sodium hyaluronate

A surgical technique for removing black ball hyphema in a pseudophakic patient is described. Three days after a total postoperative hyphema developed, a solution of sodium hyaluronate, Healon, was injected into the anterior chamber through a 160 degrees limbal cataract incision. Healon dissected the clotted blood off the underlying iris and intraocular lens, maintained the anterior chamber, and expressed the clot in toto out of the eye. Postoperatively the patient had no further bleeding, the intraocular pressure remained normal, the pseudophakos remained clear and well positioned, and the cornea remained clear.