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Causes of visual loss after silicone oil removal still obscure
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The exact mechanisms of visual loss after silicone oil removal are unclear, according to researchers who reported their findings in three such cases. When visual loss after the removal of silicone oil occurs, it tends to be in the central part of the macula, especially in the outer and middle layers, their small case series suggests.
Sunildath Cazabon and colleagues at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital in England reviewed the records of three patients who had visual loss after silicone oil removal. In two cases, visual acuity dropped from 6/9 to 6/36 and from 6/24 to 3/24 in the third case.
None of the patients had macular detachment at any stage in the follow-up period, they said. Both optical coherence tomography and fluorescein angiograms were normal. Multifocal electroretinograms indicated selective damage to the central part of the macula.
The exact mechanism causing the damage to this part of the retina “still remains obscure,” the authors concluded in the July issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.