Fluid dynamics in eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachments.

Inward and outward permeabilities to sodium fluorescein at the blood-retinal barrier were measured by kinetic vitreous fluorophotometry in ten eyes with rhegmatogenous retinal detachments. Fellow eyes were used as controls. Inward permeability of eyes with detachments was significantly larger than that of controls (P less than .005), suggesting damage to the blood-retinal barrier in eyes with detachments. Outward permeability of eyes with detachment and retinal holes was slightly less than that of controls, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, outward permeability of eyes with detachments and with retinal tears was significantly larger than that of controls (P less than .05). This increased outward permeability may be attributed to the increased fluid flow posteriorly through the break across the retinal pigment epithelium.