[Scleral buckling for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment].

Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) is the separation of the sensory retina from the pigment epithelium (RPE). RRD is caused by a retinal tear in the periphery and the vitreoretinal (VR) traction, which allows access of the vitreous fluid to the subretinal space. Treatment of symptomatic retinal detachment is currently surgical only. Surgical options are intraocular and extraocular. This is the retrospective evaluation of the group of 17 eyes of 17 patients with RRD, which were operated by scleral buckling. Patients were 9 men and 8 women, age range 19-61 (median 46) years. The observation period is 1-13 months (median 7). The possible types of external interventions procedure were used only two: the radial plombage (in one case double) and cerclage. 15 patients (88 %) were phakic, and 2 were pseudophakic. In 12 eyes (71 %) were the quadrant RRDs, 2 eyes had dialysis in periphery of the retina, 1x it was the top half and 1x bottom half, and 1 patient had a subtotal RRD. In 9 (53 %) cases were used type of operation cryocoagulation with radial buckle and in 8 cases cryocoagulation with the cerclage. In four cases, was injected the gas tamponade into the vitreous at the end of the surgery. Primary attaching the retina occurred in 16 cases (94 %) and the retina remained flat in 14 eyes (82.4% ), in 2 cases occurred re-detachment (11.7 %). Preoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) ranged from hand movement to 20/20 (average Snellen equivalent 20/63) and postoperative BCVA was 1/50 - 20/20 (average 20/50). Improving BCVA was statistically significant (Wilcoxon p=0.01). We consider the cryosurgical procedure for phakic eyes as the gold standard of the surgical treatment of uncomplicated rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. The main reason for the eventual failure of this technique is persistent vitreous traction and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR).