Primary retinectomy in proliferative vitreoretinopathy.

Purpose: To describe the functional and anatomic results of retinectomy without scleral buckling for anterior proliferative vitreoretinopathy in eyes that did not undergo previous buckling surgery.

Design: Retrospective, nonrandomized, interventional case series.

Methods: We reviewed the results of 123 consecutive cases of retinectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment complicated by anterior proliferative vitreoretinopathy. The primary outcome measure was anatomic success, defined as complete retinal reattachment. Secondary outcome measures were final anatomic success, final visual acuity outcome, number of operations required for retinal reattachment, baseline extent of proliferative vitreoretinopathy, ocular pressure at final follow-up, extent of retinectomy, and occurrence of complications.

Results: The anatomic success rate was 77.2%. Final attachment rate was 95.9%, reached after 1 rhegmatogenous retinal detachment reoperation in 21 cases and after 2 rhegmatogenous retinal detachment reoperations in 4 cases. We had a low rate of postoperative hypotony (4.1%). Visual acuity was significantly improved from 2.10 to 1.44 logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution units (P < .001). Improvement was related significantly to retinectomy extent and primary anatomic success.

Conclusions: Our results show that primary retinectomy without scleral buckling has good anatomic and functional results.