Recent developments in imaging and surgical vision technologies currently available for improving vitreoretinal surgery: a narrative review

Introduction Recent technologies and new devices continue to be developed in vitreoretinal surgeries, and they provide more details, enhance safety, improve surgeons’ comfort, and better visual and anatomical outcomes. Some devices have been used for better visualization during surgery, and some help the operation performance. They are divided into the following titles: Intraoperative OCT (including hand-held, probe-integrated, and microscope-integrated OCT), three-dimensional visualization system, virtual reality system, endoscopic vitrectomy (fiber optics and non-fiber optics), wide-angle viewing systems (contact and non-contact lenses), endo-illumination, light filters, chromovitrectomy, the retinal prosthesis (including epiretinal, subretinal, and suprachoroidal devices), robot-assisted vitreoretinal surgery, newer Vitreoretinal instruments, gene and cell therapy.Areas covered In this narrative review, we focused on PubMed articles between 2010–2023 with these keywords: ‘Optical Coherence Tomography,’ ‘Three-Dimensional,’ ‘Virtual System,’ ‘intraoperative,’ ‘endoscopic,’ ‘vitrectomy,’ ‘lens,’ ‘illumination,’ ‘filters,’ ‘chromovitrectomy,’ ‘prosthesis,’ ‘robotic surgery,’ ‘instrument,’ ‘gene,’ ‘cell.’Expert opinion The main aim of this review is to update the reader on the latest progression in intraoperative imaging and surgical vision technologies and to provide an understanding of how each has helped improve operation and surgical outcomes. The surgeons should know recent updates to do their best and achieve the most excellent results.