Extremely oblique sclerotomy incision reduces wound leakage in vitrectomy

Extremely oblique sclerotomy incision (OSI) has a self-sealing effect on sclerotomy wound leakages, says an investigation published in Retina.

The nested case-control study, led by Dr Albert L. Lin, Department of Ophthalmology, Cullen Eye Institute, Houston, Texas, USA, involved 48 patients with wound leaks and 171 control patients without leaks. Patients received either a conventional sclerotomy incision of 45°, changed to 90° midincision, or an OSI at 10°, changed to 30° midincision.

Age, gender, laterality, duration of surgery, preoperative diagnosis, vitrectomy history, sclerotomy incision and primary surgeon were the risk factors investigated.

After using multivariate logistic regression analysis it was discovered that OSI, macular preoperative diagnosis, surgical duration, no previous vitrectomy, and female gender were the protective factors for wound leakage. Using OSI compared to a standard sclerotomy incision reduces the chance of wound leakage.