Utilizing perioperative patient positioning to correct intraocular lens implant subluxation.

PURPOSE

to describe how preoperative and intraoperative positioning techniques can be used to manage subluxed intraocular lenses (IOL) whilst saving patients from pars plana vitrectomy.

OBSERVATIONS

An 88-year-old man with a complex past medical history including mild cognitive decline from early Alzheimer's dementia and pertinent ocular history of pseudoexfoliation syndrome and previous cataract surgery with IOL presented with decreased vision secondary to an inferiorly subluxed IOL/bag complex. The IOL was not visible in the operating room when he was supine but was visible in clinic the next day after he had slept in the prone position the night before. The patient was returned to the operating room the next day and a fixation suture was used to capture the IOL while he was upright. The IOL was then fixated to the sclera in standard position.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPORTANCE

Both pre and intraoperative positioning techniques can help anterior segment surgeons fixate subluxed IOLs that otherwise seem inaccessible from an anterior approach and thus avoiding the inherent risks associated with vitrectomy.