Surgical management of giant retinal tears

Giant retinal tear is one of the causes of complex retinal detachment which resists treatment. Various surgical techniques have been developed in the past to treat such a tear. These include pars plana vitrectomy with or without scleral buckling, use of viscoelastic agent, air, expanding gas, silicone oil, retinal tacks, retinal sutures, retinal incarceration. We study the result of surgical treatment of giant retinal tears in 14 patients. The surgical techniques used were pars plana vitrectomy with or without scleral buckling, fluid-air exchange, silicone oil or expanding gas and postoperative laser retinopexy. Thirteen eyes had successful intraoperative reattachment of the retinae, of those 10(71.4%) eyes the retinae remain attached through the mean follow-up of 9.4 (range 6-22) months. The retina was not reattached intraoperatively in only one eye. Three eyes developed periretinal membranes and redetached within 10 months after the operation. Oil emulsification and secondary open angle glaucoma were the most common complications in our series, each complication occurred in five patients.