Meeting Coverage:

Vit Buckle Society Meeting

VBS: 2026

Fellows Foray Winner: Conjunctival Tattoo Gone Awry

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Dr. Wood interviews this year's Fellows Foray surgical video winner, Dr. Virgolino, about his approach to a case in which a tattoo artist accidentally injected tattoo ink into the eye. He shared lessons learned and pearls for tackling similar cases.

Posted: 4/29/2026

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Fellows Foray Winner: Conjunctival Tattoo Gone Awry

Dr. Wood interviews this year's Fellows Foray surgical video winner, Dr. Virgolino, about his approach to a case in which a tattoo artist accidentally injected tattoo ink into the eye. He shared lessons learned and pearls for tackling similar cases.

Posted: 4/29/2026

Read Transcript

Edward H. Wood, MD (00:17): Hi. Welcome. We're here presenting and talking from the Vit-Buckle Society Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. (00:24): We're here with the Fellows Foray Award winner. We have every year the Fellows Foray. It's a key part of the Vit-Buckle Society Annual Meeting. This year we had 70 people submit videos internationally. 20 of them were invited to attend the annual meeting, and then a final eight presented their videos just last night. (00:46): Ciro here had the winning video. It was an incredible video. I'm Edward Wood, one of the Vit-Buckle Society members for the Foray and... Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (00:54): So hello everyone. My name is Ciro Virgolino. I'm a second-year fellow at Altino Ventura Foundation in Recife, Brazil. And I did a case of ocular perforation after oculotomy. Edward H. Wood, MD (01:06): Ciro, it was an incredible video. The patient had a really striking presentation. There was blue conjunctival tattoo ink all throughout the eye. Tell us about the video. Tell us about your amazing approach. Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (01:20): So we already had two other cases in the service. So Dr. Marcelo Ventura did two cases of black and green ink. And this time we had already hindsight how to manage the case better. (01:34): So she had a severe ocular pain in the [inaudible 00:01:38], and she also had no vision. She was in motion. So it was a really striking case. And we did manage to take almost all of the membranes of the trabecular meshwork, but even so, she developed a glaucoma afterwards. Edward H. Wood, MD (01:58): Yeah. So tell us, you've now had two of these cases. This is the third case of conjunctival tattoo dye going throughout the eye. Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (02:08): Yes. Edward H. Wood, MD (02:10): What's going on with conjunctival tattooing? Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (02:12): So the case is the guy there, the Voldemort fire, he has done over 60 cases, I believe, of ocular tattooing. And only these three cases have gone bad. So I don't know if I congratulate him or if I ... Edward H. Wood, MD (02:27): Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Really, really impressive. So in your case, you worked from the front of the eye to the very back, removing dye. (02:35): You also had an amazing part of your video where you used a gonio lens to peel membranes off the trabecular meshwork, which for a retina specialist is quite advanced. Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (02:46): Yes, but that part was done by a glaucoma fellow at the service because that's really specific for that area, really. (02:56): But to operate the retina, you really need to have a good visualization. So you really need to go from the front to the back of the eye. Edward H. Wood, MD (03:05): Yeah. Well, it was a really amazing video. You taught us a lot of great lessons about how to handle those cases, how to treat inflammation associated with conjunctival tattoo dye, how to treat glaucoma associated with it, and really be somewhat aggressive, right, with management. Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (03:21): Even though she was young, we need to do the tube implantation because we have done a gut and technique in the other one, and he had a very serious inflammation of the eye. So we needed to be more aggressive even though she was younger. Edward H. Wood, MD (03:35): Yeah. Well, it was an incredible, incredible case and congratulations again. Ciro A. C. Virgolino, MD (03:40): Thank you again.

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