[Retinoschisis and detachment (author's transl)].

Senile retinoschisis was found in 30 out of 315 pairs of eyes taken from cadavers. The retinal splitting occurred primarily as a result of the confluence of peripheral cystoid degeneration (Blessig's spaces or Iwanoff's cysts). There is no reason to suppose that two different forms of retinoschisis are present if the vessels are located in the inner layer. Based on reticular cystoid degeneration, there was only once case which could have represented another types of splitting. Here the vessels were located in the outer layer; the inner layer consisted only of the vitreous membrane. External spaces in the layer are the main causal factor for the development of retinoschisis detachment.