Silicone oil injection is one way to treat the retinal detachments. As situations in which a gas is applied inside the eye to solve the retinal detachment problem, doctors can use an oil to inject inside the eye like a gas which is not absorbable. In cases that the patient’s retinal detachment comes back again and again or it occurs in a bad condition, this injection can be a good solution. But you should know that gas or oil injection are not the only solutions for retinal detachment.

But what is silicone oil? Silicone oil is a very clean and refined medical substance which can be injected and float inside the eye. It can remain in the eye for a particular time with no danger. Different types of this oil are known. In the past, there were too many complications related to this oil caused because of its impurity, but nowadays there are few side effects. Most of these complications can be treated by taking out the oil and after that there is a small risk of retinal detachment recurrence.

What is retinal detachment and its symptoms?

Retina detachment is a condition in which the retina (a very thin tissue in the back of the eyeball) moves away from its right location. Some important indications of retina detachment are reduced sight and seeing some floaters that move in the area of your vision or light flashes. It is also painless. We mention some other symptoms below:

• A shadow over your sight
• Blurry vision is possible
• Your peripheral sight would decrease slowly

How does silicone oil treat retinal detachment?

Specialists say that there are different ways to treat the retinal detachment. One way is the surgery, and as we said the other way is gas or oil injection. Both gas and oil would help the retina layer to be placed back to its location so that the retina could join the eye wall again. The gas would be replaced by the eye fluid. If the patient needs more time of healing, silicone oil injection is the solution. Usually after the retina re-attaching the surgeon would remove the oil from your eye by a surgery. One advantage of oil injection versus gas is that you cannot fly to higher height with a plane with gas bubbles in your eye, but with this oil you can.

Complications and risks of silicone oil injection

One note you should notice is that silicone oil injection has some risks as every other eye surgery does. Some of them are mentioned below:

• Eye infection would occur
• Patient might suffer from pain and ache
• Retina detachment recurrence
• Blurry vision is also possible
• One possibility is glaucoma
• Eye pressure might decrease (Hypotony)
• Patient’s cornea may get damaged
• You may lose your sight and experience blindness
• Eye swelling
• The eye pressure may increase
• Cataract is possible
• You may get sensitive to light
• Your retina may get torn

You may also see some floaters on your vision area which is a common side effect. Researches show that it can be related to the preparing procedure of the silicone oil that makes such problems.