Vital Dyes in Vitreoretinal Surgery

Book excerpt: Chromovitrectomy is a novel approach to visualize the vitreous or retinal surface during vitreoretinal surgery. In recent years, the widely used indocyanine green (ICG) has made the surgical maneuver of inner limiting membrane peeling tremendously safer and efficient. Also, numerous dyes have been applied in experimental settings with promising or devastating results. This volume highlights the major clinical and experimental results of currently used novel vital dyes. The first chapters describe the transparent structure of the vitreous body and summarize historical considerations to visualize its structure by optical coherence tomography, dye injections or autologous cells during surgery and for diagnostic purposes. The following contributions describe the advantages and disadvantages of ICG during vitreoretinal surgery and experimental applications. Alternative approaches by recently approved vital dyes such as trypan blue, patent blue and brilliant blue are evaluated in the subsequent chapters. Finally the last few chapters give an outlook on novel vital dyes, which are currently under evaluation, as well as alternative enzymatic approaches to remove the vitreous from the retinal surface. Being a timely update this publication will be indispensable reading for vitreoretinal surgeons and ophthalmic researchers.