[Extra-scleral balloon catheterization. Report 3. New ways of its use--prevention of hypotonia and intraocular hemorrhages in vitreo- retinal surgery].

Hypotonia and ex vacuo hemorrhages are the most grave complications of vitreoretinal surgery; the known methods of their prevention are altogether inadequate. The authors have developed extra-scleral ballooning (ESB) methods that improve the efficacy of surgery and reduce the rate and severity of complications in subretinal fluid draining during surgery for detachment of the retina and in arresting intraocular hemorrhages during closed vitrectomy. ESB application helped elevate intraocular pressure in the patients with drastic hypotonia, permitting a reliable and easy-to-perform monitoring of intraocular pressure over the course of surgery. This was conducive to complete evacuation of subretinal fluid, thus preventing the development of hypotonia and its complications, as well as to a rapid arrest of intraocular hemorrhage due to rapid elevation of intraocular pressure up to the values essential for the bleeding vessel collapse. Surgical methods are described and their results analyzed in 65 cases. The developed ESB methods for the prevention of hypotonia and intraocular hemorrhages in vitreoretinal surgery are effective, low traumatic, and may be recommended as alternative ones.