[Retinal shortening: the most severe form of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR)]

To identify the clinical characteristics of patients developing retinal shortening due to intraretinal PVR.

Observational and retrospective cohort study on 110 PVR patients operated on between 2000 and 2001. During surgery, after removing epiretinal membranes and ruling out the presence of subretinal membranes, a perfluorocarbon liquid was injected. Those cases in which retinal flattening was not accomplished, were considered intraretinal PVR (group 1). Those in which retinal flattening allowed endolaser application, were taken as the control group (group 2). Clinical features of both groups were compared by chi-square test.

60 cases (54.5%, CI 95%: 40.5-68.5) showed retinal shortening (group 1). In 24 cases (21.8%, CI 95%: 12.9-30.7) complete retinal flattening was accomplished (group 2). In 26 cases (23.6%), evaluation was inconclusive. In 9 out of the 60 cases of group 1 (15%) a retinectomy was necessary to reattach the retina. Differences between both groups were not statistically significant for any of the clinical variables. However, the number of retinal detachments of more than 60 days of evolution was significantly higher in retinectomized eyes (20.7%) than in group 1 (3.7%) (p=0.04).

Retinal shortening is a relatively frequent phenomenon in PVR. Further studies are necessary to characterize this clinical presentation of PVR and its pathogenesis.