Posterior Vitreous Detachment in Diabetic Macular Edema

ABSTRACT

We investigated the prevalence of posterior vitreous detachment using +90D aspheric Volk lens in 30 patients(44 eyes) 60 years of age or older with diabetic retinopathy The patients were divided into two groups after taking fluorescein angiography, that is, 14 patients(20 eyes) with macular edema and 16 patients(24 eyes) without macular edema Posterior vitreous detachment was observed in 5 out of 20 eyes(25%) in edema group and 13 out of 24 eyes(54%) in no edema group. This difference was found to be statistically significant, indicating that diabetic cases without macular edema have significanatly higher rate of complete posterior vitreous detachment than those with macular edema(p=0.015). This study demonstrated that normally occuring posterior vitreous detachment due to aging process in over 60 years of age has the potential to protect them from macular edema.