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I’m not sure of the names. I had swelling and scar tissue on my retina that was causing severe visual distortion. It was caused by the semisolid clear filling in the eye drying out and pulling against the retina. The retinologist replaced the semisolid clear filling with what appeared to be water, leaving an air bubble which I was required to keep at the top of my eye. It jiggled around just as you’d expect. But after a few weeks it vanished, and my eye is again filled with a semisolid that is not stretching the retina.

While he did this, he used something that looked like a loop of wire to scrape the surface of the retina and remove the scar tissue. All of this worked very well and cleared up my vision in that eye to a large degree. I have a blank spot just off to the side of my central focus where I can’t see anything. But it may have been there all along and my vision was so affected I never noticed it.

The same process could be done on my other eye, but since it isn’t as bad and there is a potential risk I decided to let it go until or if it gets necessary. I’m very happy with the results and I wish you the best.

Incidentally, the reason I decided to go ahead with this is after talking to the doctor I felt he was very, very competent. If I had the slightest doubt in him, I’d have passed.

I’ve had Vitrectomy and other surgeries to correct a retinal tear following a cataract procedure. It was to “correct the anatomy” of my eye. It was not successful, I still have poor vision in the eye, but EVERY situation is different. I already had a tear, sounds like you are trying to avoid one.

I do suggest a second opinion from a board certified surgeon.

I Had the Vitrectomy. No complications. Just note there is a high probability of cataracts forming (yes in my case) within a year of the surgery. Cataract removed - no complications. Except for the 1 week of remaining in a face down position, it was a good experience.

Today is my daughter’s first wedding anniversary. During her wedding the retina in my right eye was detaching. I had had a Posterior Vitreal Detachment (PVD) in my left eye four months earlier with a small retinal bleed that needed no treatment. I then had a PVD in my right eye at the end of October that led to the retinal detachment during the wedding on Nov. 12. I had surgery, scleral buckling and vitrectomy, on Nov 16. It did change my prescription because the scleral buckle changes the shape of the eyeball. But now I see much more clearly out of that eye than out of my left eye. No floaters. It was not a fun experience, but it wasn’t horrible, either.

Because I already had cataract surgery years ago, post-vitrectomy cataract was not an issue for me.

However, the small retinal bleed in my left eye caused clouding of the lens sac (secondary cataract) and lots of blobs in the vitreous of my left eye. It looks like I’m going to have to have another vitrectomy in that eye. I’m not happy about it, but I’m confident things will go well and the cloudiness and blobs will be gone.

All this to say that in your case, they are talking about standard procedure. Vitrectomy is no walk in the park, but it’s really not that bad.