[Retinal detachment after excimer laser surgery]

The increasing number of patients with myopia who had an excimer operation arouses among retinal specialists and refraction surgeons the question whether laser operation can cause or accelerate retinal damage and initiate a motion of the retina. During the last 4 years the authors treated 5 patients with a motion of the retina who were previously subjected to excimer laser surgery on account of severe myopia. The laser procedures were implemented in different departments and then the patients were referred to us on account of complications. Poorer results and a poorer prognosis were recorded in patients with manifest degenerative changes of the periphery and with extensive rhegmatogenic manifestations. In patients without peripheral degeneration the optic functions after surgery of a motion were practically unrestricted. The incidence of rhegmatogenic changes and vitreal traction is according to the authors a contraindication for excimer procedures and they recommend to refer these patients to a vitreoretinal department.