Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:Rubeotic glaucoma is a frequent complication after vitrectomy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). We studied the incidence of bilateral rubeosis if both eyes underwent vitrectomy for diabetic retinopathy. Methods: The study included 178 consecutive eyes of 89 patients who underwent vitrectomy for diabetic retinopathy in both eyes from May 1999 to April 2003. We excluded cases which had rubeosis before vitrectomy. The 134 eyes of 67 patients had active PDR with extensive neovascularization and tractional retinal detachment and 44 eyes of 22 patients were operated for diabetic macular edema. Silicone oil was injected into 18 eyes of 13 patients during vitrectomy. Results: After vitrectomy, 10 patients (11.2%) developed rubeosis in both eyes, 3 patients (3.4%) had rubeosis in unilateral eye, and 76 patients had no rubeosis. Postoperative rubeosis occurred in 20 eyes of 134 eyes with active PDR (14.9%) and in 3 of 44 eyes with diabetic macular edema (6.8%). In 2 of 3 cases of unilateral rubeosis, silicone oil injected eyes had no rubeosis but the fellow eyes without silicone oil developed rubeosis. In the remaining one case, when rubeosis occurred in one eye, additional retinal photocoagulation prevented rubeosis in the fellow eye. Conclusions: After vitrectomy for both eyes with diabetic retinopathy, rubeosis tends to occur in both eyes. For the patient having a past history of postoperative rubeosis in one eye, the fellow eye should be examined carefully after vitrectomy.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • vitreoretinal surgery • neovascularization