Wound sealing-related complications of 25-gauge vitrectomy in proliferative diabetic retinopathy versus simple macular pathology

Purpose : To compare the incidence of wound sealing-related complications of 25-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy (25-G TSV) for proliferative diabetic ret- inopathy (PDR) versus non-diabetic simple macular pathology (SMP). Methods : A retro- spective comparative study was conducted on 377 eyes that underwent 25-G TSV for PDR (n=189 eyes) or non-diabetic SMP (n=188 eyes). Both groups were compared retrospec- tively and followed for at least 1 month (range 1-6 months). Main outcome measure was the incidence of postoperative wound sealing-related complications in both groups. Re- sults : We found a statistically significant lower incidence of wound sealing-related com- plications on the 1st postoperative day in the PDR than SMP group (P-value 0.05). The incidence were as follows :9 % s 18% for hypotony, 0% s 2% for choroidal detachment, 0% s 2% for external leakage and 1% s 8% for conjunctival bleb formation, for the PDR and SMP groups respectively. This was associated with a significantly higher postoperative inflammation and IOP in PDR group. The day 1 higher postoperative IOP and inflamma- tion were correlated with the presence of PDR pathology. Conclusion : The higher post- operative inflammation and IOP following vitrectomy in diabetic eyes, especially when combined with endolaser photocoagulation, makes such eyes less susceptible to wound sealing-related complications following sutureless vitrectomy. J. Med. Invest. 58 : 29-38, February, 2011