The world’s first operation to remove an intraocular hemangioma in a child was performed at the Filatov Institute
Ophthalmologists of the V. P. Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the NAMS of Ukraine (Odesa) performed, for the first time in the world, an operation to remove an intraocular hemangioma in a child. V. P. Filatov NAMS of Ukraine (Odesa) performed, for the first time in the world, an operation to remove a large choroidal intraocular hemangioma in a child. As the institute told the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the operation was performed by a doctor of medical sciences, head
Ophthalmologists of the V. P. Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the NAMS of Ukraine (Odesa) performed, for the first time in the world, an operation to remove an intraocular hemangioma in a child. V. P. Filatov NAMS of Ukraine (Odesa) performed, for the first time in the world, an operation to remove a large choroidal intraocular hemangioma in a child.
As the institute told the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the operation was performed by a doctor of medical sciences, head of the department of retinal and vitreous body pathology Mykola Umanets.
“Surgical removal of intraocular hemangiomas is not performed because of the very high risk of bleeding and the lack of effective methods to stop it. All modern methods of treating intraocular hemangiomas are aimed at stopping growth and destroying the tumor and are effective for small formations. In cases of large size, the only way to solve the problem is removal of the eye,” the institute stressed.
The operation was performed on a 13-year-old patient. In August 2023, during a vision check before school, the patient complained of partial loss of the visual field, but there were no complaints of deteriorating vision, and no doctors were consulted. During an examination in August 2024, doctors found that vision in the left eye had decreased significantly. An examination at the Filatov Institute revealed practically complete retinal detachment and a neoplasm beneath it – a hemangioma. The situation was complicated by the patient’s young age (at a young age neoplasms grow quickly and behave much more aggressively), the delay in seeking help, the large size of the tumor and its unfavorable location practically right next to the optic nerve, and the development of a large retinal detachment with loss of vision.
A large hemangioma was removed for the first time in the world from an adult patient at the Filatov Institute in 2020, and they were also the first in the world then.
“As in 2020, the bet was placed on the unique method of high-frequency electric welding of biological tissues in ophthalmology, developed by scientists of the Filatov Institute jointly with specialists of the Institute of Electric Welding named after E. O. Paton, which allows removing a hemangioma from an adult patient at the Filatov Institute. E. O. Paton and makes it possible to significantly reduce the risk of bleeding by means of unique instruments developed by specialists of the two institutes. During the operation, every dissected vessel was ‘welded’ to prevent bleeding,” the institute noted.
Hemangiomas (hemangioma) are benign neoplasms in various parts of the body, caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels and practically permeated by them. Hemangiomas can also form in internal organs, including (very rarely) in the vascular coat of the eye (the choroid). They do not threaten the patient’s life, but are accompanied by a significant decrease in vision and can cause serious complications such as retinal detachment, hemorrhages into the cavity of the eye, and increased intraocular pressure (glaucoma).
Before the successful operation performed by ophthalmologists of the Filatov Institute in 2020, only one case of surgical removal of an intraocular hemangioma had been recorded in the world: in 2019, the Italian ophthalmologist Barbara Parolini performed an operation to remove a small tumor in an adult patient.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/