Watch out for the special location of intraventricular silicone oil following an intraocular tamponade - a 10-year follow-up case report based on CT/MRI

Abstract Background Intraventricular silicone oil is a relatively rare complication resulted from silicone oil tamponade to treat retinal detachment. It is occasionally reported in previous literature. To the best of our knowledge, the long-term longitudinal comparisons of silicone oil both in the brain and in the postoperative eyeball based on CT/MRI were lacking, and intraventricular silicone oil accumulation beside lesions has been reported rarely. Case presentation A 63-year-old male patient underwent an intraocular tamponade with silicone oil in June 2009. Eight CT examinations and 2 MRI examinations were acquired between 2011 and 2018.The changes of silicone oil in the brain in CT/MRI as below: Silicone oil initially migration to bilateral lateral ventricular anterior horn was found in November 2011, it was aslo found at right side of suprasellar cisterna, and there was no change in location 6 h later; Silicone oil at the anterior horn of right lateral ventricle disappeared but remained at left lateral ventricle and right side of suprasellar cisterna in July 2014, and there was no change in location in a short-term reexamination. It was found at the middle of left lateral ventricle (adjacent to the real cause) in march 2018, but disappeared 3 months later, while remained at anterior horn of left lateral ventricular and right side of suprasellar cisterna all the time. There was no change in location in the next 2 follow-up (September and October in 2018). The CT values of silicone oil distributed throughout the brain were dynamically changed with time. Conclusion It is important to recognize intraventricular silicone oil in a particular location.More important is to discover “the real murderer”, which is the main cause of symptoms in the vicinity of special location. Moreover, the migration of silicone oil between eyeball and brain may not be always in a single direction.