Effect of Intravitreal Silicone Oil and Gas Tamponade to Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy(PVR)

Chung, Hum; Lee, Jaeheung; Choi, Woong San

Abstract

Silicone oil is widely used as a retinal tamponade in the treatment of PVR. But reproliferation of membrane can occur under the silicone oil. Formerly, silicone oil was believed to suppress the proliferation of membrane, but recently, there were reports that silicone oil might actually promote proliferation of membrane, and recommended to use long-lasting gas rather than silicone oil. But it is known that proliferation of membrane can also occur in the eye in which intraocular gas has been used. So a careful study to compare the effect of intraocular gas and silicone oil to proliferation of membrane is needed. Rabbits are divided into three groups. Retinal tears were made in all the groups. in control group, no further surgery was done, and in the other two group, perfluoropropane gas was injected into the vitreous cavity. The intraocular gas was left unchanged(gas group), or it was exchanged with silicone oil 3 days later(silicone oil group). The fundus was examined periodically, and the eyeball was removed at 1, 2, 4, and 8 weeks after surgery for histopathologic study with light and electron microscope. Both intravitreal gas and silicone oil were shown to increase the formation of proliferative membrane compared to control group, but there was no statistically significant difference between them.