Repair of scleral rupture and total retinal detachment in a self-injuring psychotic patient under local anesthesia: a case report.

PURPOSE

Ocular self-injury by psychotic patients is an uncommon cause of ocular morbidity that poses peculiar problems. This report describes a schizophrenic self-injuring patient with scleral rupture and retinal detachment (RD), treated under loco-regional anesthesia.

CASE REPORT

A 65-year-old man presented with scleral rupture, hyphema, traumatic lens luxation, vitreous prolapse, vitreous hemorrhage and total RD after deliberately hitting his head. The fellow eye had been successfully operated with scleral buckle surgery for the same reason two years earlier. The patient underwent a two-step surgical procedure under local anesthesia, with repositioning and resection of the uveal prolapse and scleral rupture repair and, separately, lens removal pars plana vitrectomy (PPV), membrane peeling, retinotomy, laser treatment and SiO tamponade.

RESULTS

Twelve months after PPV, the cornea was clear, IOP was 16 mmHg, the retina was attached and VA was 20/200. The fellow eye maintained 20/30 VA.

CONCLUSIONS

In psychotic patients the intrinsic difficulty of a traumatic RD is combined with systemic illness, no compliance and the risk of recurrence. Although ocular traumas usually require general anesthesia, this patient underwent both interventions under local anesthesia with sedation, because of his psychotic condition and chronic liver failure. Local anesthesia and sedation proved effective in controlling pain and intra-operative compliance even in such a difficult patient. Although it is reasonable to question operating on such patients, we nonetheless believe that every attempt should always be made at gaining useful vision in both eyes since these patients are at a high risk of recurrent ocular trauma.