iOCT in PVR Surgical Management

Recent advances in optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology have allowed the introduction of OCT into the operating room. Intraoperative OCT (iOCT) has been utilized to visualize the retinal architecture prior, during, and following several retinal surgical technics. The identification of epiretinal, subretinal, and intraretinal changes is one of the crucial points in PVR management. The iOCT can identify intraretinal changes and/ or subretinal PVR membranes which cannot be easily peeled as epiretinal membranes. Intraretinal forms are especially difficult to identify preoperatively but their presence may be crucial in surgical management because the attempt to remove the presumed membrane may result in severe retinal tissue damage and iatrogenic tears. Therefore, surgical technique and even tamponade choice may be seriously affected by OCT imaging results.