Experimental Studies on the Vitreous Substitutes

ABSTRACT

Experimental replacements of rabbit vitreous by air, normal saline, dextran and Haemaccel were tried in albino rabbits. After aspiration of 0.7ml of liquid vitreous from the central portion of vitreous, 0.5ml of substitutes were injected. Clinically, these substitutes were well tolerated with slight uveal inflammation which subsided within one week. Intraocular pussure returned to normal value after 5 days. Hexosamine content of the whole vitreous samples showed moderate increase after Haemaccel injection which decreased slowly thereafter, whereas no significant changes were observed with other substitutes. Hydroxyproline content of the whole vitreous also showed marked increase after injection of Haemaccel, owing to the high hydroxyproline content of HaemacceJ. After 6 weeks 22.9% of the injected hydroxyproline remained in the vitreous. With other substitutes no change was observed.