Modified subretinal dye extrusion technique (MORE-DETECH): subretinal diluted trypan blue for detecting occult retinal breaks in retinal detachment after endotamponade removal

To investigate the effectiveness of a new technique for the identification of occult retinal breaks in retinal redetachment after removal of silicone oil endotamponade. The technique involves injection of subretinal dye and extrusion through the unidentified breaks. A prospective interventional case series. Main outcome measures were rate of break detection, rate of retinal attachment at 3 months after removal of endotamponade, and improvement in visual acuity after surgery. A total of 21 patients fulfilled the study criterion. The occult rhegma could be identified successfully in all except two cases (90.4 % success). In most cases the rhegma was identified at the posterior edge of the laser retinopexy scar. Complete retinal attachment could be seen in all cases at 12 weeks after removal of silicone oil. The mean visual acuity improved from logMAR 1.4, preoperatively to logMAR 0.81 (p = 0.001) postoperatively. Subretinal dye injection was useful in detecting occult retinal breaks in patients with retinal redetachment and was helpful in preventing surgical failure.