Prophylactic treatment of retinal breaks reduces RD risk

Prophylactic treatment of retinal breaks during vitrectomy appears to reduce the risk of postoperative retinal detachment (RD), states a paper in Retina.

The retrospective non-comparative interventional case series, led by Dr H.S. Tan, Department of Ophthalmology, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, reviewed the medical records of 89 consecutive cases of 89 patients over a period of four years. The main outcome measures included incidence of breaks, visual acuity outcome and occurrence of postoperative complications.

The findings demonstrated that the visual acuity at the last follow-up visit was ≥0.5 in 70% of patients. Retinal breaks were found in 29% of patients, but induction of a posterior vitreous detachment, the use of a fragmatome or delay between cataract surgery and vitrectomy did not affect retinal break incidence.

Only 2% of cases presented with postoperative RD, one case had intraoperative choroidal haemorrhage, two cases had postoperative macular pucker, one had postoperative macular oedema and glaucoma was recorded in two cases.

A high number of retinal breaks were observed during vitrectomy for retained lens fragments. Prophylactic treatment of retinal breaks appears to reduce the risk of postoperative RD.

Please click here to read the abstract.