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Lens dislocation into the vitreous during phakoemulsification.
Management with vitrectomy-heavy liquid. Shall we encircle? On 60 cases.

Michael Tzakos, Kandarakis A.

Athens, Greece

Aim:To examine if retinal detachment(RD) can be avoided by encircling the
eye in cases presenting dislocated nuclei into the vitreous subsequent to
phako, before we manage them with vitrectomy, heavy liquid, removal of
nucleus and positioning of an IOL.

Material-Method : Between 1993-2001 we managed 60 referrals in our Department,
presenting nuclei dislocated into the vitreous, a complication that had occurred during phako, with the method described above. Thirty of the eyes received an encircling band prior to vitrectomy, while the rest were left alone.

Results : For a mean follow-up time of 54 months, we have observed only 2 RDs
in the encirclement group(6.6%) and 4 RDs in the non encirclement group(13.2%). All of them were managed successfully with a second operation.

Conclusion: Despite the fact that our observations cannot be supported statistically(x2=0.74), we feel that prophylactic encirclement in such case may be of benefit in reducing post-vitrectomy RDs.