Effect of the Superior Cervical Sympathectomy on Experimental Retinal Branch Vein Occlusion in Rabbits

PURPOSE: Superior cervical sympathectomy was performed on argon laser induced experimental branched retinal vein occlusion in rabbits to evaluate its effect on retinal blood flow. METHODS: Branched retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) was induced by argon laser in 30 eyes (15 pigmented rabbits) divided into three groups. One and 3 weeks after inducing BRVO, superior cervical sympathectomy was performed in Group 1 (early) and 2 (late), respectively. Group 3 was left as a control group. Fundus photography, fluorescien angiography and Heidelberg Retinal Flowmetry (HRF) were performed prior to and after sympathectomy. Pathologic examination was done after enucleation. RESULTS: The sympathectomy groups, especially Group 1 (early), showed better recovery of retinal blood flow, volume, and velocity. CONCLUSIONS: Sympathetic block appears to produce dilatation of the retinal blood system, and we suggest stellate ganglion block technique as an effective treatment modality on human beings with BRVO.

Clinical Evaluation of Epiblepharon and Congenital Entropion

We retrospectively reviewed the sex distribution, age at oepration, chief complaints, peroperative and postoperative refractive errors, and corrected visual acuity in 160 previously operated patients to evaluate the clinical manifestations, reractive error, frequency of amblyopia, age at operation, and the postoperative factors affected by the operation of epiblepharon and congenital entropion itself that influence visual acuity and refractive error. The average age at operation was 7.9 years. The chief complaint was ocular discomfort, followed by visual disturbance, photophobia, eyelid rubbing and epiphora. One hundred thirty-three wyws(41.6%) whose preoperative corrected visual acuity was below 0.6 had a mean visual acuity of 0.7. Ninety-five eyes (29.7%) were preoperative myopes above -1.0D, 77 eyes(24%) were hyperopes above +1.0D, and 163 eyes were astigmatic above -1.0D. Twenty-two out of 76 eyes who were followed up for more than one year had a corrected visual acuity of below 0.6. The difference between the older and less than 7 years groups was significantly not significant. Astigmatic changes were not statistically different at any age group. However, the mean significantly visual acuity at postoperative one year was 0.73, which was significantly different from the preoperative value(P=0.006). In conclusion, concurrent postoperative glasses correction and amblyyopia therapy is indicated because the incidence of refractive errors and amblyopia is higher in epiblepharon and congenital entropion.