Higher retinal re-attachment success in patients with complete PVD

The presence of a complete posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) may be associated with an increased likelihood for primary anatomic success following retinal detachment surgery in phakic eyes, according to a report published in the September issue of Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology.

Flavio Rezende from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and colleagues from centres across Brazil and the USA ultrasonographically evaluated the preoperative status of the posterior vitreoretinal interface in 50 phakic eyes of 49 patients undergoing surgery for retinal detachment. Twenty-two eyes (44%) had a partial PVD and 28 eyes (56%) had complete PVD.

Surgeons performed pneumatic retinopexy in 18 eyes, scleral buckling in 15 eyes and pars plana vitrectomy in 17 eyes. It was discovered that 38 eyes (76%) achieved retinal re-attachment after just one surgical procedure, including 12 eyes with partial PVD and 26 eyes with complete PVD.

Among subjects undergoing pneumatic retinopexy, those with complete PVD demonstrated a significantly higher primary anatomic success rate compared with those with a partial PVD (p=0.02). By the 12-month follow-up, patients with partial PVD had undergone an average of 1.7 interventions, compared with just 1.1 in patients with complete PVD.

The report concluded that phakic eyes with complete PVD are more likely to achieve primary anatomic success following retinal detachment surgery than those with partial PVD.