The scleral buckling of primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment under the surgical microscope.

Background And Objective: To analyze the feasibility of performing scleral buckle under the surgical microscope without using the indirect ophthalmoscope.

Patients And Methods: Data came from 342 eyes of 339 patients with primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) that were suitable for scleral buckling. All surgeries were performed under the surgical microscope including examination and localization of retinal breaks, scleral buckling, and retinal cryotherapy.

Results: During intraoperative examination, additional retinal breaks were found in 39 cases. Among 36 eyes in which a retinal break was not observed pre-operatively, 23 cases had retinal breaks detected during surgery. The anatomic success rate after one operation was 88.9% and the final success rate was 98.0%.

Conclusion: Scleral buckling of RRD with equatorial or pre-equatorial breaks can be easily done under the surgical microscope, which has the merits that the surgeon's view is a clear upright image, manipulations are simple, and good surgical results can be obtained.