You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Letter
Cystoid macular oedema with trypan blue use
  1. P Gouws,
  2. M Merriman,
  3. S Goethals,
  4. P R Simcock,
  5. R J Greenwood,
  6. G Wright
  1. Bristol Eye Hospital, Lower Maudlin Street, Bristol BS1 2LX, UK
  1. Correspondence to: P Gouws Bristol Eye Hospital, Bristol, UK; pietergouws.freeserve.co.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bjo.2004.041756

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    We present a large comparative series of trypan blue use in cataract surgery. This series of trypan blue used in all eyes regardless of cataract severity may be unique. We found an apparent increased rate of cystoid macular oedema (CMO) associated with trypan blue use.

    Melles et al’s1 report on the use of trypan blue in cataract extraction in 1999 combined with Apple et al’s2–4 series on dye enhanced cataract surgery facilitated widespread acceptance of this technique. The dye has been shown to stain basement membrane of lens capsule.5 Trypan blue is now widely used to assist in cataract extraction when visualisation of the anterior capsule is poor because of loss of red reflex. Trypan blue has also been used to improve contrast during cataract extraction in eyes with corneal opacities6 and to stain internal limiting membrane and epiretinal membrane during vitreoretinal surgery.7,8 The safety profile of trypan blue appears good with no adverse effects reported in several large series.9–11

    Patients and methods

    In this retrospective, comparative study we identified a consecutive series of …

    View Full Text