title: The role of scleral buckle in experimental posterior penetrating eye injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although episcleral buckles are frequently placed as an additional procedure to vitreoretinal surgery, little is known about their independent effect after ocular trauma. The authors created a posterior penetrating ocular injury model to evaluate the isolated role of primary episcleral buckle placement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty eyes underwent surgery. The penetrating injury consisted of two 5-mm circumferential incisions placed five clock hours apart and 8 mm behind the limbus. A segmental episcleral buckle was placed over a randomly chosen injury site after wound closure. The degrees of fibrous proliferation, traction, and the presence of retinal detachment were evaluated on follow-up examinations. After enucleation and initial fixation, tissue sectioning was performed, and the greatest dimension of the fibrous proliferation at both wound sites was measured with a caliper.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two eyes were excluded from the study. Three eyes developed a retinal detachment; the remaining 15 eyes showed varying degrees of proliferation and traction on the retina. The greatest dimension of the fibrous proliferation at the buckle site (1.22 +/- 1 mm) was significantly different from that at the nonbuckle site (2 +/- 1.45 mm, P = 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Primary episcleral buckle placement at the time of surgical repair reduces vitreous traction from the buckle site and decreases the degree of fibrovascular proliferation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, 1430 Tulane Avenue, SL-69, New Orleans, LA 70112-2699, USA.
authors.forename: Gamze
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Men
authors.forename: Gholam A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Peyman
authors.forename: Po-Cheng
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Yanno
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bezerra
authors.forename: Fatemah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghahramani
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Naaman
authors.forename: Charalampos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Livir-Rallatos
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015807:Eye Injuries, Penetrating / Q000601:surgery*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005654:Fundus Oculi; D011817:Rabbits; D011897:Random Allocation; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D012591:Scleral Buckling / Q000379:methods*; D014143:Traction; D018630:Vitreoretinopathy, Proliferative / Q000150:complications; D014822:Vitreous Body / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery; D014945:Wound Healing