Perfluorobutylpentane (F4H5) Solvent-Assisted Silicon Oil Removal Technique.

Perfluorobutylpentane (F4H5) Solvent-Assisted Silicon Oil Removal Technique Silicon oil emulsion (SOE) complicates vitreoretinal surgery in a variable percentage of cases and causes various range of inconveniences to ocular structures from nontroublesome occupancy of the anterior chamber (AC) by oil bubbles to increased noncontrolled intraocular pressure, risk of fibrosis, and development of proliferative vitreoretinopathy. Silicone oil removal is not always a straightforward procedure. In fact, it could be time consuming and only partially accomplished because of high viscosity of the silicon oil. To facilitate the removal, semifluorinated alkane [R (F)R(H)] solvent can be used. These molecules are able to solubilize perfluorocarbon liquids and silicone oils. Perfluorohexyloctane (F6H8) has been the first silicon oil solvent to be proposed for silicon intraocular lens cleaning and demonstrated ambiguous results. More recently, perfluorobutylpentane (F4H5) has been released, and in a recent study, it seems to show its superiority both in vitro and in vivo. As other semifluorinated alkane, F4H5 has a reduced density (1.284 g/cm3 at 25°C) and a very low interface and surface tension (respectively, 17.43 mNm and 43.03 mNm at 25°C). F4H5 WashOut device (Fluoron GmbH, Ulm, Germany) has been released in Europe, Canada, and South America, with a cost of approximately 300$, with the specific indication of silicon oil removal from AC and vitreous chamber (VC). F4H5 WashOut has been tested for 2 different silicon oils in a comparative study. There is no consensus on the best silicone oil washout procedure, and the possibility to implement the procedure by means of a solvent makes it even more challenging. Here, we report on the outcomes of our technique of solvent-assisted silicone oil removal.