Vitrectomy

Vitrectomy is a surgery to remove some or all of the vitreous humor from the eye.

Anterior vitrectomy entails removing small portions of the vitreous humor from the front structures of the eye—often because these are tangled in an intraocular lens or other structures.

Pars plana vitrectomy is a general term for a group of operations accomplished in the deeper part of the eye, all of which involve removing some or all of the vitreous humor—the eye's clear internal jelly.

Even before the modern era, some surgeons performed crude vitrectomies. Dutch surgeon Anton Nuck (1650–1692) claimed to have removed vitreous by suction in a young man with an inflamed eye. In Boston, John Collins Warren (1778–1856) performed a crude limited vitrectomy for angle closure glaucoma.

Anesthesia for vitrectomy

Options for anesthesia for vitrectomy are general anaesthesia, local anesthesia, topical anesthesia and intracameral lidocaine irrigation.

Each anesthesia technique has its advantages and disadvantages, and the selection of anesthesia will depend on various factors including the surgeon's and patient's choice, disease and additional surgical steps required.

Pars plana vitrectomy

Although Robert Machemer has historically been credited with developing pars plana vitrectomy, Anton Banko patented the procedure for closed vitrectomy in 1968, predating Machemer's first reported operation by three years. Machemer performed the first reported human closed pars plana vitrectomy in 1970, and subsequently helped establish the technique as a standard approach to vitreous surgery.