Treatment of symptomatic retinal breaks.

Forty-three patients with symptomatic retinal breaks were treated with photocoagulation and a comparable group of 43 patients were treated with cryopexy. All patients had either a vitreous hemorrhage, or photopsia and floaters. Most of the breaks were of the horseshoe type. Of the patient eyes, 14% (six patients) in both groups developed new retinal tears without detachment during the long term postoperative observation. The new breaks were treated with the method used for the original breaks, and no scleral surgery was necessary. The incidence of retinal detachment was 7% in patients treated with photocoagulation and 11.6% in patients with cryocoagulation, but two cases that developed retinal detachment arising from new tears years after the initial procedure were included.