Pseudophakic/Aphakic Retinal Detachment Surgery Using Scleral Depression Technique

ABSTRACT

In aphakic/pseudophakic retinal detachments, difficulty in visualizing the peripheral retina and perhaps higher incidence of proliferative vitreoretinopathy result in lower success rate than phakic retinal detachment. We performed pars plana vitrectomy on 20 eyes with aphakic/pseudophakic retinal detachment. In most cases, we combined scleral bucking or encircling procedure. Using scleral depression technique, we found retinal breaks, dissected the vitreous base meticulously, and removed the vitreoretinal tractions. Intraoperatively, we were able to find retinal breaks in 12 eyes in which retinal breaks were not identified preoperatively, and identify additional retinal breaks in 3 of the remaining 8 eyes. We obtained anatomical success in all eyes and favorable visual acuity of better than 0.025 in 16 eyes (80%). These results suggest that finding all retinal breaks and removing vitreoretinal tractions are directly related to the improvernent of the surgical results.