Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 10;7(4):299-304.
doi: 10.1177/24741264231161121. eCollection 2023 Jul-Aug.

Unexplained Vision Loss Associated With Intraocular Silicone Oil Tamponade in Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment Repair

Parastou Pakravan  1 , Abdulla Shaheen  1 , Veshesh Patel  1 , Maria F Villalba  1 , Bernard Dib  2 , James Lai  1 , Landon Rohowetz  1 , Viet Chau  1 , Nimesh A Patel  3 , Jonathan H Tzu  4 , Angeline L Wang  5 , Sandra Alhoyek  3 , Nathan Scott  1 , Wasim A Samara  2 , Lediana Goduni  1 , Jesse J Jung  6 , Jonathan F Russell  7 , Dimosthenis Mantopoulos  8 , Amir R Hajrasouliha  9 , Brian T Savoie  10 , Luis J Haddock  1 , Audina M Berrocal  1 , Jayanth Sridhar  1 , Matthew R West  2 , Nicolas A Yannuzzi  1
Affiliations

Unexplained Vision Loss Associated With Intraocular Silicone Oil Tamponade in Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment Repair

Parastou Pakravan et al. J Vitreoretin Dis. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the visual outcomes with unexplained vision loss during or after silicone oil (SO) tamponade. Methods: This multicenter retrospective case series comprised patients with unexplained vision loss associated with SO tamponade or its removal. Eyes with other clear secondary identifiable causes of vision loss were excluded. Results: Twenty-nine eyes of 28 patients (64% male) were identified. The mean age was 50 ± 13 years (range, 13-78 years). The mean duration of SO tamponade was 148 ± 38 days. Eighteen eyes (62%) developed unexplained vision loss while under SO; 11 (38%) had vision loss after SO removal. The most common optical coherence tomography (OCT) finding was ganglion cell layer (GCL) thinning (55%). Eyes with vision loss after SO removal had a mean logMAR best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 0.6 ± 0.7 (Snellen 20/85) before SO tamponade and 1.2 ± 0.4 (20/340) before SO removal. By the last follow-up after SO removal, the BCVA had improved to 1.1 ± 0.4 (20/235). In eyes with vision loss after SO removal, the BCVA before SO removal was 0.7 ± 0.7 (20/104), which deteriorated to 1.4 ± 0.4 (20/458) 1 month after SO removal. By the last follow-up, the BCVA had improved to 1.0 ± 0.5 (20/219). Conclusions: Unexplained vision loss can occur during SO tamponade or after SO removal. Vision loss was associated with 1000-centistoke and 5000-centistoke oil and occurred in macula-off and macula-on retinal detachments. The duration of tamponade was 3 months or longer in the majority of eyes. Most eyes had GCL thinning on OCT. Gradual visual recovery can occur yet is often incomplete.

Keywords: intraocular silicone oil tamponade; rhegmatogenous retinal detachment repair; unexplained vision loss.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Yannuzzi is on Advisory Board of Genentech and RegenXbio. Dr. Mantopoulos is a consultant to Alimera Sciences. Dr. Goduni has served on the Alimera Fellows Advisory Board and is an independent contractor for Clover Therapeutics. Dr. Jung is a consultant to Carl Zeiss Meditec, Inc.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Unexplained vision loss after SO removal in a 60-year-old man who presented with macula-involving RRD and a BCVA of 20/60. He was treated with combined scleral buckling and vitrectomy surgery and received SO tamponade. The SO was removed 4 months after placement. The postoperative BCVA diminished to 20/200 eccentric, which did not improve. The IOP was normal throughout his course. (A) After SO removal, there was temporal disc pallor (upper) and trace nasal cystoid macular edema (lower). There was no significant cupping suggestive of glaucoma. (B) Optical coherence tomography of the ganglion cell layer showed thinning. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and orbits was normal. Abbreviations: BCVA, best-corrected visual acuity; IOP, intraocular pressure; RRD, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment; SO, silicone oil.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moya R, Chandra A, Banerjee PJ, Tsouris D, Ahmad N, Charteris DG. The incidence of unexplained visual loss following removal of silicone oil. Eye (Lond). 2015;29(11):1477-1482. doi:10.1038/eye.2015.135 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oliveira-Ferreira C, Azevedo M, Silva M, et al.. Unexplained visual loss after silicone oil removal: a 7-year retrospective study. Ophthalmol Ther. 2020;9(3):1-13. doi:10.1007/s40123-020-00259-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Roca JA, Wu L, Berrocal M, et al.. Un-explained visual loss following silicone oil removal: results of the Pan American Collaborative Retina Study (PACORES) Group. Int J Retina Vitreous. 2017;3:26. doi:10.1186/s40942-017-0079-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Williams PD, Fuller CG, Scott IU, Fuller DG, Flynn HW. Vision loss associated with the use and removal of intraocular silicone oil. Clin Ophthalmol. 2008;2(4):955-959. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scheerlinck LM, Schellekens PA, Liem AT, Steijns D, van Leeuwen R. Incidence, risk factors, and clinical characteristics of unexplained visual loss after intraocular silicone oil for macula-on retinal detachment. Retina. 2016;36(2):342-350. doi:10.1097/IAE.0000000000000711 - DOI - PubMed