We have been exploring the vast use of silicone in various industries. We have even learnt that it is useful for medical purposes too. In today’s article, we will understand the idea of using silicone for the treatment of retinal detachment and its effects on eyesight.
Let’s first understand, what are retinal detachment and its surgery.
The structure of our eye is very complex in itself. The retina is a very crucial and delicate part of our eye. Retinal detachment is a critical situation in the system of eyesight that can cause problems like loss of vision. There is a thin layer called the retina at the back of the eyes. When this tissue gets pulled away from its position, is called retinal detachment. Due to this retinal detachment, a person can have a complaint about floaters and flashes. In the later stage, it can lead to a reduction of vision. The macula is another sensitive part of the eye. It is present in the retina and it is a matter of concern that the macula should not get detached or else it will be harmful to the eyesight.
Retinal detachment needs to be cured and the advice of an ophthalmologist is necessary. The primary step to cure this illness is to have retinal detachment surgery. If the retina is getting detached repeatedly, then silicone oil is used to complete the surgery.
Use of Silicone oil in retinal detachment surgery
Silicone oil is a manmade synthetic substance. It is made up of repeated units called siloxane (Si- O). Silicone oil is used while the process of retinal detachment surgery is going on. It is advisable for indication of complex retinal detachment because of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). As we all know the functioning of our eye is a very crucial and delicate process, it is a very tricky task to use silicone oil to fill an eye because every eye has a different size and it requires a different volume of oil. The oil-filled in the eye remains behind the iris. If there is no lens, then too much oil can move ahead in the pupil and decrease the visual quality of the cornea. Using silicone can be the last choice as it can cause damage to the vision.
It is advisable to have less use of silicone oil in primary surgery in order to avoid further surgery.
Alternative for silicone oil
The studies say that too much use of silicone oil can cause complications like glaucoma, cataract, corneal opacification. There are cases where another surgery was held to remove silicone oil used earlier. It has led to the problem of retinal detachment which is not advisable in practical terms. If the stage of detachment is not advanced, then there is another alternative and that is the use of expanding gases for internal retinal tamponade. The use of gas tamponade or silicone oil may vary with every case but the gas tamponade technique can also be used successfully to operate a patient with retinal detachment.
Use of silicone oil in complicated retinal detachment surgery
It is seen from the study that the use of the gas tamponade method is safer than the use of silicone oil but the requirement can emerge where the complications in the retina may demand the use of silicone oil as it has been proved as an effective treatment in case of complicated surgery. Long-acting intraocular gases were tried in case of milder requirements. It has given good results with fewer side effects but complicated surgery has the option of silicone oil.
The proper use with care does not give a chance of further complications. Silicone oil is the best way to have a successful surgery in case of complex cases.
Advantages of silicone oil
As we have seen in the above piece of work, silicone oil has some harmful effects on retinal detachment but as we know every coin has two sides. Let’s see another side of silicone oil which will prove that it is the best option especially in the case of complicated detachment surgery. Following advantages are observed for the use of silicone oil.
- Silicone oil remains in the eye until it gets removed by surgery so it is helpful for inferior detachment.
- It helps the patient when they are unable to cooperate with postoperative positioning requirements.
- The volume of silicone oil remains unaffected by atmospheric pressure.
- It can control surface tension and viscosity.
Conclusion
This article showed us the path where we could understand the use of silicone oil. We also learnt how this silicone oil is crucial to treat complex retinal surgery. The only disadvantage of silicone oil is that it has to be removed again with surgery. The use of silicone oil should be avoided. It should be used if there is any complicated retinal surgery. The alternative for silicone oil is the use of gas tamponade. This alternative is advisable in case of milder retinal detachment. We hope that this article must have given a plethora of knowledge to our readers and we look forward to the valuable feedback from them. Kindly drop your suggestions in the suggestion box right here.