Laser Treatment of Retinal Detachment With P.V.R. After Vitrectomy in the Presence of Silicone Oil

Abstract

The once skeptical attitude towards the use of silicone oil has recently given way to one of confidence, mainly due to the characteristics of this substance (transparency, stability, tamponing power unaltered in time). Its utilization, confined at first to the cases of proliferative vitreoretinopathy with possibility of relapse, has been extended to other pathologies, such as giant retinal tears, some proliferative diabetic retinopathies and perforating traumas. In all these cases, internal tamponing with silicone oil at the end of the operation, although it cannot prevent relapses, makes it possible to immobilize the membranes, to prevent the occurrence of complete detachment of the retina and to carry out an aimed removal (with silicone) of newly proliferated membranes. Intraoperative physical treatments (endocryo-cryo-transcleral, endophotocoagulation) may not be possible and must often be completed in the post-operative phase by means of the tamponing effect of silicone.