Vital Dyes in Vitreoretinal Surgery—Chromovitrectomy

Vitreoretinal surgery, particularly inner limiting membrane peeling, was notoriously challenging until the fairly introduction of indocyanine green, which appears to be helpful in improving efficacy and safety. Other dyes have been used in trials to varying effect, including some compounds that have proven to be disastrous. This collection reports major findings in both clinical and experimental situations, covering the search for the imaging of vitreous, historical developments in the application of vital dyes, simple ways to visualize the transparent vitreous cortex during surgery, safety parameters for indocyanine green and its toxicity in surgery, possible biochemical changes of the internal limiting membrane, and current uses of Trypan Blue, Patent Blue V and Brilliant Blue G (and their effect on structures), vital staining in retinal reattachment surgery, and new approaches for novel dyes for intraocular surgery. The closing paper describes an experimental evaluation of microplasmin as an alternative. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)