Histopathological analysis in experimental macular surgery with trypan blue

Grisanti, S
Szurman, P
Tatar, O
Gelisken, F
Aisenbrey, S
Oficjalska-Mlynczak, J
Kaczmarek, R
Bartz-Schmidt, K U

¹Department of Ophthalmology I, Eberhard-Karls University Tuebingen, Germany
²Department of Neuroscience, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA
³Department of Ophthalmology, University of Wroclaw, Poland

Correspondence to: Assistant professor S Grisanti Department of Ophthalmology I, Eberhard-Karls University of Tuebingen, Schleichstrasse 12–15, 72076 Tuebingen, Germany; [email protected]

Accepted 29 February 2004

British Journal of Ophthalmology 88(9):p 1206-1208, September 2004.

Aim:

To analyse the effect of trypan blue on the retina in an experimental setting of macular surgery.

Methods:

Porcine eyes were used within 3 hours after death. The eyes were hemisected and the vitreous removed. Trypan blue (0.15%) was applied over the trephined posterior pole, whereas the rest of the eye cup was filled with a balanced salt solution (BSS). The dye and the BSS were removed after 1 minute and the complete eye cup irrigated and filled with fresh BSS. Both the treated and untreated retinas were illuminated with a standard surgical light pipe and source at maximum power for 10 minutes. Both the trypan blue exposed retina and the non-treated surrounding retina were processed for histology.

Results:

Exposure of the retina to trypan blue for 1 minute, followed by illumination caused no histologically detectable damage compared to the controls. No microarchitectural disorganisation, cellular disruption, or affection of the vitreoretinal interface was detected.

Conclusions:

These findings indicate that a 1 minute exposure of trypan blue followed by illumination does not cause an acute morphologically detectable toxic effect on the porcine retina.