Retinal Detachment Following Cataract Surgery

The technical progress in cataract treatment led to the significant decrease of retinal detachment (RD) following surgery. Globally, the risk for RD, 4 years after cataract surgery is around 0.93%. The strategy to decrease the risk for pseudophakic RD includes: preoperative identification of the retinal lesions predisposing to RD, high quality cataract surgery and efficient resolution of complications (if any). The RD on the pseudophakic eye differs from the one on the pakic eye, by the possible incarceration of the vitreous and the condition of the posterior capsule, which can be present, interrupted or absent. The treatment of pseudophakic RD is surgical. In its absence, vision is lost. With treatment in due time, most cases have a favorable outcome. We present our personal experience in treating pseudophakic RD, with the aim to outline the role of small gauge vitrectomy in preventing visual loss associated with pseudophakic RD. We conducted a retrospective study in which we included all the consecutive cases with pseudophakic RD operated by small gauge PPV (23G, 25G) during 2014. For the statistical analysis, we used the Fisher exact test. During 2014 we operated 53 patients with RD that occurred following cataract surgery. Of these, 38 were males (71.69%) and 15 were females (28.30%). Myopia was present in 9 of the 53 cases (16.98%). In 46 of the 53 cases, intraocular lens (IOL) was correctly positioned, in the bag (86.79%), in 4 cases, the IOL was in the sulcus (7.54%), in 2 cases, it was fixated at the sclera (3.77%) and in one case, it was fixated to the iris (1.88%). Chapter 1