Abstract
Purpose: :
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of two-port 20-gauge pars plana vitrectomy with a slit-lamp illumination system in different vitreoretinal pathologies.
Methods: :
retrospective, consecutive interventional case series. One-hundred and ninety-five consecutive eyes of 195 patients underwent 20-gauge two-port pars plana vitrectomy with a combination of slit-lamp illumination and a plano-concave contact lens, at the San Paolo Ophthalmology Center, from September 2005 through November 2007. Postoperative visual acuity (VA) at baseline and at 1, 3, and 6 months, intraoperative and postoperative complication rate, and surgical time were evaluated.
Results: :
all patients completed 6 months of follow-up. The mean overall VA was 0.74 ± 0.03 (mean ± SD) at baseline, improving to 0.56 ± 0.03 (P<0.0001), 0.48 ± 0.03 (P<0.0001), and 0.43 ± 0.03 (P<0.0001) at 1, 3 and 6 months, respectively. No intraoperative complications occurred. Postoperative complications included retinal detachment in 3 patients, epiretinal membrane recurrence in 3 eyes, persistent macular hole in 4 eyes, and phthisis in 1 eye. Iatrogenic cataract was observed in 25 eyes. The total mean surgical time was 28.3 ± 10.1 minutes. No-one had hypotony after the surgical procedure and no cases of endophthalmitis were observed. Conversion to standard three-port vitrectomy was not necessary in any of the cases.
Conclusions: :
two-port 20-gauge pars plana vitrectomy with slit-lamp illumination is a safe and effective procedure for posterior-segment surgeries.
Keywords: vitreous • vitreoretinal surgery • retina