Frequency of epithelial debridement during diabetic vitrectomy

Purpoe To urvey active vitreoretinal urgeon to determine how often they intentionally debride the corneal epithelium during vitrectomy urgery for diabetic patient and to acertain whether the election of the urgical len type influence the debridement rate. Deign Obervational retropective cae erie. Method Fifty-five vitreoretinal urgeon were aked to retropectively report how many par plana vitrectomie they performed in 1 year on diabetic eye and in what percent of the cae wa debridement of the cornea neceary. In a econd query, they were aked to note which pecific type of urgical len ytem (hand-held irrigating, Lander ew-on, or Oculu BIOM noncontact) wa ued for their urgical intervention. Reult The total number of diabetic vitrectomie performed in 1 year by the repondent wa 8,002. The frequency of epithelial debridement wa 17.4%, with a range of 0% to 90%. The ue of irrigating contact lene wa aociated with a ignificantly higher rate of debridement compared with the ue of ew-on or BIOM noncontact lene (23.5% v 12.1%, P < .001). Regarding the 41 urgeon who indicated a pecific type of len ued, we found that the debridement rate for infuion lene wa 23.8% compared with 13.0% for ew-on lene and 15.6% for noncontact BIOM lene. The difference between thee group wa tatitically ignificant (P < .025). Concluion Irrigating contact lene appear to increae the need for epithelial debridement compared with other alternative. ew-on lene with a vicoelatic cuhion may provide the bet corneal protection.