Choroidal vascular changes after encircling scleral buckling for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.

Background/objectives: There is an ongoing debate on whether encircling scleral buckling (SB) procedure for the treatment of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) may cause an impairment in choroidal blood flow. The aim of this study was to compare choroidal vascularity index (CVI) and subfoveal choroidal thickness (CT) between eyes that had undergone encircling SB with unoperated fellow eyes (FEs).

Subjects/methods: Thirty patients treated with encircling SB for unilateral RRD were included. Demographic and clinical characteristics as well as enhanced depth imaging-optical coherence tomography scans were retrospectively collected. Images were binarised using ImageJ software, total choroidal area along with luminal and stromal area (respectively, TCA, LA and SA) were segmented and the CVI was computed as the ratio of LA/TCA. In addition, CT was evaluated.

Results: The mean follow-up interval between surgery and examination was 25.5 ± 16.8 months. Choroidal thickness, TCA, LA and SA were significantly increased in the operated eyes compared to FEs (respectively, 271.7 ± 78.0 µm vs. 238.5 ± 83.4, P = 0.001; 1.804 ± 0.491 mm vs. 1.616 ± 0.496, P = 0.001; 1.199 ± 0.333 mm vs. 1.067 ± 0.337, P < 0.001 and 0.605 ± 0.171 mm vs. 0.550 ± 0.171, P = 0.001). Conversely, CVI did not significantly differ between the two groups (66.4 ± 3.6 vs. 65.9 ± 3.2, P = 0.490).

Conclusions: In conclusion, eyes treated with encircling SB for RRD presented increased LA, SA and CT compared with FEs, but showed no difference in CVI.