Visual outcome after silicone oil removal and recurrent retinal detachment repair

Purpose. Prospective analysis of the effect of removal of silicone oil (ROSO) in eyes with complicated retinal detachments and evaluation of the visual outcome following recurrent retinal detachment after silicone oil removal. Methods. We evaluated 62 consecutive cases of ROSO over a 12 month period. All eyes had previously undergone silicone oil placement for complicated retinal detachments. All eyes undergoing scheduled ROSO over the time period of the study were entered and were reviewed post-operatively. Results. Sixty-two eyes were entered into the study. Twenty-one of 62 (34%) developed recurrent retinal detachment following ROSO; 18 of these 21 recurrent detachments were reattached with one additional procedure and only 5 required replacement of the silicone oil. Ten of these 21 eyes (48%) had improvement or stabilisation in final visual acuity compared with the presenting visual acuity. Overall, 39 eyes (63%) had improvement in vision following ROSO and 76% of all eyes had ambulatory visual acuity at the end of the follow-up period. Fourteen eyes required cataract extraction with ROSO to attain this final visual acuity. Conclusions. Overall, ROSO has a significant rate of recurrent retinal detachment, with a high reattachment rate with one additional procedure. Few of these eyes need the silicone oil replaced. Most eyes will retain ambulatory visual acuity even with multiple procedures in cases of complicated retinal detachments following ROSO even with recurrent retinal detachment.