Twenty five-gauge endoscopic vitrectomy for proliferative vitreoretinopathy with severe corneal opacity

Endoscopic Vitrectomy Combined with 3D Heads-Up Viewing System in Treating Traumatic Ocular Injury

Purpose

To investigate effects and complications of endoscopic vitrectomy combined with 3D heads-up viewing system in treating traumatic ocular injury. Patients and Methods. This is a retrospective interventional case series in a tertiary referral center in Taiwan, and we included patients of traumatic ocular injury, and they underwent endoscopic vitrectomy combined with a 3D heads-up viewing system.

Results

Fourteen eyes of traumatic globe injury from 14 patients were studied over a 30-month period. Preoperative VA ranged from no light perception (NLP) to 6/6. Postoperative visual acuity improved in 11 of the 14 eyes (79%). Until 6 months after surgery, all eyes had attached retina. The median logMAR BCVA was 2.4 at the first visit and 1.19 at the last visit (p = 0.0028). No subject suffered from retinal detachment, endophthalmitis, or other severe complications.

Conclusions

Vitrectomy using endoscopy combined with 3D heads-up viewing system allowed early evaluation and intervention in traumatic ocular injuries. Most of our cases showed both anatomical and visual acuity improvements.

Intraocular endoscopy: A review

Optimal visualization is one of the most challenging aspects of performing vitreoretinal surgery. In situations where conventional microscopic techniques provide poor posterior visualization, the adjunctive skill set of endoscopic visualization may be needed. This allows for by-passing the opaque anterior segment media and getting access to the posterior segment pathology. Endoscopic vitrectomy is a useful and unique adjunct to microincision vitreoretinal surgery. The optical set-up of endoscopy allows for clinical approaches that are impossible with regular microscope viewing systems. These include the ability to observe across optically significant anterior segment opacities and directly visualize the posterior segment of the eye. It also allows for visualizing the difficult-to-access retroirideal, retrolental, and anterior retinal structures. Surgical access to anatomic spaces like the pars plana, pars plicata, ciliary sulcus, ciliary body, and peripheral lens is tedious. This is made simpler by endoscopy. In this review, we summarize and review the usage of the intraocular endoscope as a diagnostic and therapeutic armamentarium across a wide spectrum of ocular pathologies.

Endoscopic vitreoretinal surgery: Review of current applications and future trends

Endoscopy provides unique optical properties to circumvent anterior segment opacities and visualize difficult-to-access anatomical regions, including retroirideal, retrolental, ciliary body, and anterior retinal structures. We summarize the basic principles and utilization of endoscopic vitreoretinal surgery, along with recent technological advances in the field base on a structured literature search in Pubmed, Embase, and Google Scholar database up to February, 2020. Endoscopy has been used in the management of retinal detachment, ischemic retinopathies with neovascular glaucoma, severe ocular trauma, endophthalmitis, lens-related disorders in the posterior segment, pediatric vitreoretinal diseases, and implantation of retinal prostheses. Ongoing development of endoscopic technology aims to provide higher resolution images with endoscopes of smaller diameter. New surgical techniques supported by the adoption of endoscopy are available to manage challenging surgical scenarios. Endoscopy can be a useful adjunct to microscope wide-angle viewing systems in the management of complex vitreoretinal diseases.

Modified deep anterior lamellar dissection for corneal opacity during vitrectomy: case reports

Background

To introduce a modified deep anterior lamellar dissection technique to improve visibility during surgery for vitreoretinal diseases with coexisting corneal opacity.

Case presentation

Two patients with retinal detachment and coexisting corneal blood staining or corneal decompensation underwent modified deep anterior lamellar dissections followed by vitrectomy. The modified deep anterior lamellar dissection techniques, unlike the dissection and removal of corneal lamellar in a typical deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty, included the creation and preservation of a deep lamellar corneal flap, the retroillumination to visualize and easily remove the remaining opaque stroma on the Descemet membrane, and the big air bubble technique in the eye with endothelial decompensation. The patient’s own cornea flap was sutured back after vitrectomy was done. The modified dissection techniques provided adequate fundus view during vitrectomy while removing as less corneal tissue as possible and decreasing the surgical complications and the requirement of a fresh cornea. Postoperatively, in case 1, the corneal blood staining was gradually absorbed and the vision improved from light perception to counting fingers. In case 2, even though the cornea remained cloudy and the vision was poor, the cornea endothelial decompensation was stable and asymptomatic. Both retinas were attached after silicone oil removal at 6-month follow-up.

Conclusions

This modified and limited deep anterior lamellar corneal dissection procedure appears to be a useful alternative to penetrating keratoplasty, ophthalmic endoscope and temporary keratoprosthesis during the vitrectomy with coexisting corneal opacity.

Simultaneous Vitreoretinal Surgery and Penetrating Keratoplasty without a Keratoprosthesis or Endoscopy for Vitreoretinal Disease Associated with Corneal Opacity

We evaluated the visual outcome of combined penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) and 25G pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) performed without a temporary keratoprosthesis or endoscopy in a patient with vitreoretinal disease complicated by severe corneal opacity. The patient was a 68-year-old woman who had severe corneal opacity and silicone oil in her left eye after several previous intraocular surgeries for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and proliferative vitreoretinopathy. We successfully performed a combined surgery of conventional PKP followed by 25G PPV without the use of a keratoprosthesis. At 6 months after surgery, visual acuity had not improved, and the density of corneal endothelial cells of the donor cornea had declined from 3,205 to 1,969 cells/mm². However, corneal transparency remained good, and additional surgery for vitreoretinal disease was not necessary. The combined surgical procedure designed to minimize the number of open-sky steps and to limit vitreoretinal complications thus proved to be safe and achieved stable corneal clarity in a patient with vitreoretinal disease and severe corneal opacity.

Three-dimensional ocular endoscope system for vitrectomy

PURPOSE

To introduce a new three-dimensional (3D) endoscope system for vitrectomy.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

We report a single-center, retrospective, consecutive surgical case series of 391 eyes that underwent 25G hybrid vitrectomy. To create 3D endoscopic images, a 3D converter HD-3D-A was connected to a monocular endoscopic system.

RESULTS

The 3D endoscope system was successfully used to perform hybrid vitrectomy. No intra- or postoperative complications related to this system were encountered in any of the cases.

CONCLUSION

This 3D endoscope system appears to be a valuable and promising tool for use in vitrectomy.