Clinical Analysis of Vitrectomy Efficiency for Non-diabetic Vitreous Hemorrhage

PURPOSE: To investigate postoperative visual acuities of patients who underwent vitrectomy for their dense nondiabetic vitreous hemorrhage, and in addition to assess postoperative visual results of the group who underwent early vitrectomy. METHODS: Included in the study were 52 patients (52 eyes) who had undergone vitrectomy and been followed up for longer than 4 months after surgeries. Authors investigated the underlying diseases of vitreous hemorrhage, surgical outcomes, and the rate of complications. In addition, we evaluated the results of the group who had undergone vitrectomy between 4 weeks and 6 weeks after development of hemorrhage. RESULTS: The most common cause of vitreous hemorrhage was branch retinal vein occlusion followed by macular hole, ocular trauma, central retinal vein occlusion, age related macular degeneration, Terson`s syndrome, and unknown cases. Visual acuity before operation is less than light perception to 0.3 and improved in 44 eyes (84.6%) after operation. The rate of more than 5 lines' improvement is 63.4% (33 eyes) and 51.9% (27 eyes) obtained their visual acuity of 0.5 or better. In the group which had been operated 4 to 6 weeks after the development, visual acuity improved in 100% (16 eyes). Thirteen eyes (81.2%) showed more than 5 lines' improvement of their visual acuity and 12 eyes had 0.5 or better (75.5%). The most common complication after surgeries is cataract in 5 eyes (10.8%), others were macular hole in 3 eyes (5.7%), retinal detachment in 2 eyes (3.8%), macular hole in 1 eye (6.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Pars plana vitrectomy is a good procedure to improve visual acuity for the patients who have suffered persistent visual disturbances due to non-diabetic vitreous hemorrhage. Also, early vitrectomy should be considered for early visual rehabilitation.

A Comparative Study of Recurrence Rate in Bilateral Pterygium Surgery: Conjunctival Autograft Transplantation Versus Bare Scleral Techinque

PURPOSE: When the patients with both recurrent and primary pterygia, We performed conjunctival autograft transplantation for recurrent pterygium and bare sclera technique for primary pteygium. We then compared the recurrence of each case in order to find out the usefulness of each surgery and effective mothod of surgery. METHODS: We performed follow-up on 26 eyes of 13 patients for 14 months (mean); 8 patients (16 eyes) were female, and 5 patients (10 eyes) male. The mean age of the patients was 49.5 years ranging from 37 to 63. In the operation, all patients received with 0.02% Mitomycin C for 1 minute. RESULTS: Pterygium recurred in 3 of 13 eyes which underwent bare sclera technigue, and did not recur in 13 eyes undergoing conjunctival autograft transplantation, but there was no significant difference because of a small number of study cases (P=0.07). We found postoperative complications such as corneal fila-ment and conjunctival granuloma in the case of bare sclera technique; but none in conjunctival autograft transplantation. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend a conjunctival autograft transplantation with application of low concen-tration of Mitomycin C as a safe and effective method for recurrent pterygium or pterygium with high recurrence rate.

The Effect on Early Visual Outcome of Corneal Cap Attachment with Brushing after LASIK

PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the effect on early visual outcome of corneal cap attachment with brushing after LASIK. METHOD: We studied 40 eyes of 20 patients who received LASIK from April, 1998 to March, 1999. Early visual acuity was measured in the first, second and third day after LASIK between the group that received brushing procedure and the group that didn't. RESULT: The consecutive group that received brushing procedure showed considerable increase in recovery rate of visual acuity compared to the control group that did not receive brushing procedure on the first day (P0.05) after LASIK. CONCLUSION: We think that corneal cap attatchment with brushing helps early visual recovery and further investigation in this study is needed.