Unsuccessful vitrectomy without gas tamponade for macular retinal detachment and retinoschisis without optic disc pit

The mechanism of subretinal fluid accumulation in optic disc pit maculopathy is unknown. A 67-year-old Japanese woman complaining of blurred vision in her right eye presented with a best-corrected visual acuity of 20/200. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy and optical coherence tomography examination showed maculopathy typically associated with optic disc pits, except that the patient had no optic disc pit. Long-acting gas tamponade was required to achieve reattachment of the retina and retinoschisis after initial failure of surgery using surgically induced vitreous detachment without either fluid-air exchange or gas injection. Vitreous traction may not have played a major role in introducing fluid into the submacular space in this case. Gas tamponade may be indispensable to achieve surgical success. This may also pertain to some cases of optic nerve pits.