Abstract

The passage of fluorescein dye, injected into the general circulation, from the posterior to the anterior chamber was studied in 60 selected aphakic eyes between 2 days and 4 weeks after an uneventful cataract extraction. In a group of 22 eyes with intact anterior hyaloid, fluorescein was seen to pass only through the pupillary margin, mostly within 20 seconds of the beginning of the eye injection. In 24 eyes with rents in the anterior hyaloid the dye was seen percolating only through the vitreous face openings. No fluorescein passed through the pupillary margin or the peripheral iridectomy in this group of eyes. The appearance time of the dye was delayed to about twice the normal appearance time. In 8 eyes with rents in the anterior hyaloid the dye passed only through the pupillary margin. In 4 eyes with anterior vitreous rents the fluorescein appeared through the anterior vitreous face opening. From the analysis of the data it appears that the spontaneous breaks in the anterior vitreous face may represent a 'self-c,re' of pupillary and iridectomy block by the vitreous in aphakics in a high proportion of cases. It is our impression that 3 peripheral iridectomies and a very tight closure of the wound can prevent the complication of spontaneous breaks of the vitreous face.