Ultrasonic control of ocular dimensions and surgical indentations in retinal detachment.

Ultrasonography is a useful procedure to evaluate volumetric changes in the eye before and after retinal detachment surgery. We found myopic eyes to be variable in shape, most of them ovoidal, and some of them nearly spherical. Given a similar anteroposterior diameter, a spherical eye will have a larger volume than an ovoidal one, and a circling operation will produce a greater reduction than the same procedure in an ovoidal eye. Ultrasonography has been used also to measure the indentation produced by retinal surgery and to follow up its variations through the years.