Morphometric study of the chorioretinal complex of laboratory animals in an experiment with electrocoagulation of the retina via transvitreal access

Abstract

Retinal detachment occurs primarily as a result of diabetes, high myopia, and eye injuries. Restoration of the anatomical integrity of the detached retina is performed urgently using methods that allow fixing the displaced layers of the retina in their usual place – cryo-, laser-, and electropexy methods. There is no consensus on which of these methods is better. Our study is devoted to electropexy, namely high-frequency electrocoagulation, and describes an experiment on modeling the restoration of the anatomical integrity of a detached retina on lab rabbits of the chinchilla breed using an instrument of original design – a monopolar coagulator with a 25 G tip. 33 rabbits (66 eyes) were divided into four groups: the control group (6 animals) and 3 groups (9 animals each), which were operated using an electric current with a frequency of 66 kHz, a current of 0.1 A, and voltages of 10–12 V (I group), 12–14 V (II group) and 14–16 V (III group) and transvitreal access. All rabbits were subjected to euthanasia: rabbits of the control group (intact) – at the beginning of the experiment, operated rabbits (I–III groups) – 30 days after the operation. Eyes were enucleated, tissues of chorioretinal structures were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and studied under light microscopy with measurement of retinal thickness using the software "ImageFocusAlpha" (Netherlands) version 1.3.7. The results of morphological and morphometric studies were compared with the results of our other experiment conducted earlier with similar conditions of impact on chorioretinal structures, but with suprachoroidal access. The research and comparison showed that both with suprachoroidal and transvitreal accesses, with a current frequency of 66 kHz and a current strength of 0.1 A, the optimal exposure voltage is 10–12 V, and the best approach is the suprachoroidal access. Keywords: vitreoretinal surgery, retinal detachment, retinal thickness.