Vitrectomy

What To Expect

At home, you may need to keep your head in a certain position for a while. This helps the gas or oil bubble push against the detachment. Your doctor will tell you what position to lie in.

Why It Is Done

Vitrectomy may be done along with other treatments to:

• Repair or prevent traction retinal detachment.
• Repair very large tears in the retina.
• Reduce vision loss caused by bleeding in the vitreous gel (vitreous hemorrhage). Surgery may be needed if bleeding is severe or the blood does not clear on its own.
• Treat severe proliferative retinopathy. This causes scar tissue to form or new blood vessels to grow on the retina. These new blood vessels can leak blood into the eye.

Your eye doctor may suggest this type of surgery for a retinal detachment because an oil bubble can be used. An oil bubble does not move around in the eye as much as a gas bubble does. This may make the surgery and recovery easier for people who have trouble keeping their head in the proper position.

How Well It Works

Vitrectomy can greatly improve vision in many people who have severe bleeding in the eye that has not cleared on its own.

This surgery may restore some vision in people who have traction retinal detachment. It may also help keep the detachment from getting worse. The results may be better if the detachment has not affected the macula or your central vision.

Risks

Possible serious problems after this surgery include:

• Cataracts.
• High pressure inside the eye. This happens most often in people who have glaucoma.
• More bleeding into the middle of the eye.
• Retinal detachment.
• Infection inside the eye.