Ophthalmologists at the Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odesa) performed the world’s first surgery to remove an intraocular hemangioma in a child. For the first time in the world, the Filatov National Institute of Robotics and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine (Odesa) performed a surgery to remove a large intraocular choroidal hemangioma in a child.
The institute told Interfax-Ukraine that the operation was performed by Mykola Umanets, MD, head of the Department of Retinal and Vitreous Pathology.
“Surgical removal of intraocular hemangiomas is not performed due to 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 the growth and destruction of the tumor and are effective in the case of small tumors. In cases of large tumors, the only way to solve the problem is to remove the eye,” the institute emphasized.
The operation was performed on a 13-year-old patient. In August 2023, during an eye examination before school, the patient complained of a partial loss of visual field, but there were no complaints of visual impairment and he did not seek medical attention. During the examination in August 2024, doctors found that the vision in the left eye had significantly decreased. During the examination at the Filatov Institute, an almost complete detachment of the retina and a hemangioma under it were found. The situation was complicated by the patient’s young age (at a young age, tumors grow rapidly and behave much more aggressively), untimely treatment, large size of the tumor and unfortunate location almost close to the optic nerve, development of a large retinal detachment with loss of vision.
In 2020, the Filatov Institute removed a large hemangioma from an adult patient for the first time in the world, and it was also the first in the world.
“Just like in 2020, we relied on a unique method of high-frequency electric welding of biological tissues in ophthalmology, developed by scientists of the Filatov Institute together with specialists of the E.O. Paton Institute of Electric Welding, which allows us to remove a hemangioma in an adult patient at the Filatov Institute. The new method allows to remove a hemangioma in an adult patient at the E.O. Paton Institute and significantly reduces the risk of bleeding with the help of unique tools developed by specialists of the two institutes. During the operation, each dissected vessel was “brewed” to prevent bleeding,” the institute noted.
Hemangiomas are benign tumors in various parts of the body caused by abnormal growth of blood vessels and are practically penetrated by them. Hemangiomas can also form in the internal organs, in particular (very rarely) in the choroid (choroid). They do not threaten the patient’s life, but are accompanied by a significant decrease in vision and can cause the development of serious complications, such as retinal detachment, hemorrhages in the eye cavity, and increased intraocular pressure (glaucoma).
Prior to the successful surgery performed by the ophthalmologists of the Filatov Institute in 2020, the world had recorded the only case of surgical removal of an intraocular hemangioma: In 2019, Italian ophthalmologist Barbara Parolini performed surgery to remove a small tumor in an adult patient.
Source: https://interfax.com.ua/
