A Clinical Evaluation of Removal of Intraretinal Foreign Bodies Through Pars Plana Vitrectomy

ABSTRACT

Penetrating ocular injuries with intraretinal foreign body(IRFB) are increasing and may result in significant visual morbidity. We evaluated retrospectively 22 eyes of 22 patients who had undergone pars plana vitrectomy for removal of IRFB at Dong-a University Hospital from July 1990 to June 1996. The majority of patients were adult male(95.5%). The nature of all IRFB was magnetic property and the causes of injury were hammering and cutting work(77.3%). Preoperatively, eyes were complicated with vitreous hemorrhage and opacity(59.1%), traumatic cataract(45.%), retinal detachment(36.4%), and corneal opacity(22.7%). Postoperative complications included vitreous hemorrhage and opacity(36.4%), retinal detachment(22.7%), and proliferative vitreoretinopathy(18.2%). In our study, poor visual prognosis was obtained in cases of corneal entrance site, IRFB larger than 2mm in size, IRFB located posterior to equator and IRFB associated with retinal detachment.