Posterior vitreous wick syndrome: a potential cause of endophthalmitis following vitreo-retinal surgery.
Endophthalmitis following pars-plana procedures such as a vitrectomy vitreo-retinal procedures has been infrequently reported in literature. The cited incidence is about 0.1% to 0.2%. In the 8 cases of endophthalmitis that have been reported in literature, the prognosis has been indicated as very poor due to a delay in diagnosis (1-3). Also, no possible source of an inoculum of the pathogenic organism reaching the vitreous cavity has been considered in these reports. We have encountered a few cases of endophthalmitis following vitreo-retinal surgeries at our tertiary eye care centre. Here again not being able to identify the possible source of infectious spread, we now report for the first time in literature, a new entity, the 'posterior vitreous wick syndrome'. This potential source of infectious spread, to the best of our knowledge, has not been considered earlier. We describe the patho-mechanism of the 'posterior vitreous wick syndrome' and also suggest methods of reducing its occurrence during vitreo-retinal procedures. This could also be the patho-mechanism of endophthalmitis following inadvertent loss of scleral integrity during extraocular surgeries like retinal detachment surgery and strabismus surgery (4,5).
D000328:Adult; D009877:Endophthalmitis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012160:Retina / Q000601:surgery*; D014822:Vitreous Body / Q000601:surgery*; D014823:Vitreous Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications*