Do Daily Activities Affect Gas Tamponade‒retina Contact After Pars Plana Vitrectomy?

Abstract

Purpose: To calculate the retinal surface alternatively in contact with gas and aqueous because of fluid sloshing during daily activities such as ocular saccade, turning the head, standing up, and being a passenger of a braking car.Methods: Fluid dynamics of aqueous and gas tamponade was reproduced using computational methods using the OpenFOAM open-source library. The double-fluid dynamics was simulated by the volume of fluid method and setting the contact angle at the aqueous-gas-retina interface.Results: Sloshing increased the retinal surface in contact with aqueous by 13% to 16% regardless of fill rate and standing up determined the largest area of wet retina, followed by car braking, head rotation, and ocular saccade (P , 0.001). All activities except the ocular saccade determined a significant increase in the surface of retina in contact with the aqueous (P , 0.005). Car braking induced the highest shear stress (6.06 Pa); standing up determined the highest specific impulse and saccade the lowest.Conclusion: Daily activities instantaneously reduce the amount of retina consistently in contact with gas tamponade and increase shear stress giving aqueous a potential access to the subretinal space regardless of patients' compliance.