Comparison of Repeated Fluid-Air Exchange and Passive Drainage for Removing Residual Emulsified Silicone Oil Droplets

Table 3

Decrease in the number and percent of silicone oil droplets following fluid-air exchange or passive drainage.

	FA exchange		PD		^†	^‡
	Change number	Change percent (%)	Change number	Change percent (%)
Number of droplets	−0.56 × 10^6 ± 0.55 × 10^6	45.55 ± 20.62	−0.95 × 10^6 ± 0.25 × 10^6	28.36 ± 27.48	0.052	0.075
Number of droplets with a diameter of
1-<2 µm	−0.45 × 10^6 ± 0.48 × 10^6	44.54 ± 22.07	−0.91 × 10^6 ± 0.25 × 10^6	27.20 ± 29.20	0.035	0.063
2-<3 µm	−0.68 × 10^5 ± 0.70 × 10^5	36.45 ± 9.31	−0.23 × 10^5 ± 0.14 × 10^5	26.90 ± 16.66	0.035	0.015
3-<4 µm	−2.16 × 10^4 ± 1.97 × 10^4	46.54 ± 17.12	−0.90 × 10^4 ± 1.47 × 10^4	22.40 ± 21.11	0.019	0.004
4-<5 µm	−0.73 × 10^4 ± 0.56 × 10^4	46.17 ± 21.10	−0.33 × 10^4 ± 0.31 × 10^4	31.57 ± 24.68	0.075	0.190
5-<7 µm	−0.62 × 10^4 ± 0.89 × 10^4	44.46 ± 18.17	−0.23 × 10^4 ± 0.25 × 10^4	27.75 ± 30.11	0.123	0.190
7-<12 µm	−0.26 × 10^4 ± 0.45 × 10^4	36.51 ± 22.87	−0.16 × 10^4 ± 0.13 × 10^4	44.21 ± 37.64	0.796	0.579

FA, fluid-air; PD, passive drainage. Values in bold are significant at . ^† value for between-group comparison of change in number of droplets. ^‡ value for between-group comparison of percent change in number of droplets.