VITRECTOMY AND SILICONE OIL INJECTION IN PEDIATRIC-PATIENTS

Objective: To determine the functional and anatomic results of vitrect omy with silicone oil injection in complicated retinal detachments in children. Design: a retrospective review of all records of children ag ed 15 years or younger who underwent vitrectomy with silicone oil inje ction between 1985 and 1994 in the Goldschleger eye institute. Results : Twenty-eight eyes of 27 patients were included in the series, with a mean follow-up time of 24 months. The underlying pathologies included penetrating injury (11 eyes), high myopia (8 eyes), choroidal colobom a (2 eyes), retinopathy of prematurity (2 eyes), and various other pat hologies (5 eyes). At the end of the follow-up, complete or partial an atomic success was obtained in 9 eyes (32%) and 3 eyes (10%), respecti vely, The final visual acuity was 20/400 or better in 5 eyes (18%) and hand motions or less in 19 eyes (68%). The visual acuity could not be determined in 3 eyes due to the age of the patients, and in 1 eye due to mental retardation. The worst results occurred in the perforating injury group, The usual complications associated with silicone oil occ urred frequently. Conclusions: Satisfactory anatomic and functional re sults were obtained in a minority of the eyes included in our series. The grave prognosis was determined by the devastating nature of the ex ternal injury in the trauma cases and the severe vitreoretinal patholo gy in the other eyes.