This eye looks normal at first, but if you look closely you can see a large bubble of silicone oil in the anterior chamber. This silicone was placed into the back of the eye to repair a retinal detachment. Unfortunately, some of the oil has percolated forward into the front of the eye.

This places the ophthalmologist in a difficult position: you’d like to take the oil out as it can decompensate the endothelium and cause cornea problems. However, removal of silicone may also lead to a re-detachment of the retina. Some might try removing the oil from the front part of the eye only with paracentesis, however, some retinal surgeons I’ve spoken to say that this is only a temporary fix as the oil continues to burp back into the AC.

To get a better stereoscopic view of this eye, watch our silicone oil video from which this photograph was taken.