Purpose To study the refractive state of silicone oil tamponade eyes. Methods To calculate the theoretical refractive state of eyes with silicone oil based on clinical visual optics and to perform retinoscopy on 48 silicone oil filled eyes with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and 45 ones with PPV plus lens ectomy with retinal reposition, and then study theoretical and experimental differences of diopter in silicone oil filled eyes. Results Postoperative diopter of the former increases (+6.26plusmn;1.20)D than preoperative diopter, while that of the latter is (+11.40plusmn;2.22)D. Conclusion Hyperopic changes are found in silicone oil tamponade eyes, and the experimental values are lower than the theoretical ones. This may be helpful in predicting the change of diopter of silicone oil tamponade eyes. (Chin J Ocul Fundus Dis, 2001,17:102-104)