Efficacy of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) in subretinal hemorrhage removal.

t-PA can be used intra-operatively to liquify a large and elevated submacular blood clot and to facilitate the aspiration through a small retinotomy. In 15 consecutive patients we operated in this way, we noticed that an intra-operative subretinal injection of t-PA was never able to dissolve the blood clot completely. Therefore it was necessary to perform a large retinotomy in large hemorrhages.