Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of silicone oil removal on intraocular pressure.
Material and method: Our material consists of 98 patients (104 eyes), who underwent vitrectomy with silicone oil tamponade. Sixteen eyes in this group were aphakic before vitrectomy. The mean duration of silicone-oil tamponade was 8.8 months. We examined and compared intraocular pressure in all cases before vitrectomy, during tamponade and after silicone oil removal.
Results: The increased intraocular pressure (> 22 mmHg) was found in 27 eyes (seven of them were aphakic) during tamponade. We had to remove silicone oil due to glaucoma in 6 eyes (three of them were aphakic). In 9 eyes (four aphakic) the intraocular pressure was higher than 22 mmHg after silicone oil removal. Seven patients required additional topical medication and 2 patients were qualified for operation--trabeculectomy. Hypotony (< 10 mmHg) was observed in 11 eyes, and it coexisted with retinal redetachment in 4 cases.
Conclusions: The increased intraocular pressure is a frequent complication of silicone oil tamponade, and it normalizes after silicone oil removal in most of these cases.