scar tissue retina

[Joopy]

Hi,
I had cataract surgery in August 09.  because of bleeding it became an emergency case.  The retina became detached. With laser it was re-attached.  after a month the retina was cracked '  With more surgery to fix that with laser. Now I am blind in the one eye because of scar tissue in the center of the retina  I can see my hand in front of my eye but not clearly because a new lense has not been inserted.  The surgeon has advised me that nothing more can be done and I will have to live with one eye.  I also have low pressure in thar eye as well as  glaucoma in the good eye. Is it possible to remove the scar tissue and have a lens implanted in that eye?
Thank you in anticipation

[Michael J Kutryb, MD]

The answer is that it all depends on exactly what you have.  If you have significant scar tissue, it is often very difficult to remove and improve the vision especially since your vision is down so badly at present.  You can hopefully get a new IOL and that may also help some.  I'm really sorry but I cannot make any specific recommendations since I don't know what you really have other than a retinal detachment repair and no lens, and low pressure.  The prognosis sounds difficult at best.

MJK MD

[berrywoo]

How low is your IOP? (anything less the 6 mmHG is definitely hypotony and can cause problems) Sometimes the IOP can rebound and land in the normal range of 10-21 mmHG, but it takes time.
Depending on the situation, sometimes the risks of surgery are too high to undertake. Your surgeon may feel that it is not safe to operate on your eye to remove the ERM and implant an IOL at this time as these surgeries can do more harm to your eye: nerve damage, complete retinal detachment w/more PVR, infection etc.
I would recommend a second opinion. If you live in the U.S. visit www.aao.org to find a vitreo-retinal specialist near you.