Pneumatic induction of the posterior vitreous detachment - a minimally invasive method of treating vitreomacular traction syndrome

To study the efficacy of pneumatic induction of posterior vitreous detachment for the treatment of vitreomacular traction syndrome, the analysis of the results of surgical treatment of 10 patients (10 eyes) with vitreomacular traction syndrome was performed, among them 8 patients (8 eyes) had an accompanied immature age-related cataract and 2 patients (2 eyes) - pseudophakia. The average age of the patients was 64.1±4.6 years, among them 8 women and 2 men. The mean best corrected visual acuity on admission was 0.31±0.15, the average length of vitreomacular adhesion and retina thickness in the fovea by optical coherence tomography were 289.3±75.4 and 367.5±50.3 μm, respectively. Patients with pseudophakia underwent pneumatic induction of the posterior vitreous detachment, and patients with cataract underwent the same surgery in combination with phacoemulsification of the cataract and intraocular lens implantation. Within 1 month of follow-up, all patients had a complete posterior vitreous detachment and increased best corrected visual acuity. Intraocular pressure remained normal throughout the follow-up period in 9 out of 10 patients, 1 patient experienced hypertension on day 1 after the surgery, which required decompression during the gas expansion period. Further on, intraocular pressure was normalized and did not require therapy. Pneumatic induction of posterior vitreous detachment is an effective method of treatment of vitreomacular traction syndrome, which allows eliminating vitreomacular traction; the combination of pneumatic induction of the posterior vitreous detachment with phacoemulsification of cataract allows avoiding hypertension during and after operation and avoiding performing vitrectomy.