Iatrogenic retinal breaks in ultrahigh-speed 25-gauge vitrectomy: a prospective study of elective cases.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To evaluate the incidence of intraoperative retinal breaks in the ultrahigh-speed (UHS) 25-gauge vitrectomy system in elective vitreous-retina surgery cases.

METHODS: A prospective series of 1676 eyes of 1306 consecutive patients. All eyes underwent an UHS 25-gauge transconjunctival sutureless pars plana vitrectomy for elective cases such as idiopathic epiretinal membrane (586 cases), floaters (153), macular hole (385), vitreous macular traction syndrome (119), dropped nucleus or intraocular lens (84) and vitreous bleeding (82). Patients were followed up for a minimum of 6 months.

RESULTS: There were 1409 eyes involved in this study. Iatrogenic retinal breaks were found in 25 eyes (1.8%) during surgery. The majority were detected in cases where posterior vitreous detachment was induced during surgery (21 eyes; 2.8% of the patients), and in only four eyes (0.6%) with an already detached vitreous. In nine cases, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment developed during the follow-up. Patients who showed intraoperative retinal breaks were not in this group. Other complications during the follow-up included two cases of vitreous haemorrhage (0.1%), two cases of dislocated intraocular lens (0.1%), and 23 eyes with hypotony without any further complications.

CONCLUSIONS: UHS 25-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy is a safe procedure for treatment of elective vitreous-retina cases. The risk of developing iatrogenic breaks seems to be correlated with adhesion of the posterior vitreous hyaloid. Other complications, such as rhegmatogenous retinal detachment or hypotony, were similar to previous reports. No correlation was found between iatrogenic retina breaks and other complications.