RESCUE PNEUMATIC RETINOPEXY IN PATIENTS WITH FAILED PRIMARY RETINAL DETACHMENT SURGERY

To describe the outcome of a series of patients who underwent pneumatic retinopexy (PR) for recurrent retinal detachment after scleral buckling and vitrectomy.

This is a retrospective review of 42 consecutive cases who underwent secondary PR after either scleral buckling (n = 22) or vitrectomy (n = 20) between 1995 and 2011. Fisher's exact and nonparametric tests were used for comparison.

Hundred percent of patients in the scleral buckle group and 90% of the vitrectomy group were repaired with 1 PR procedure (P = 0.67). The two patients in the vitrectomy group failed because of presumed new breaks and proliferative vitreoretinopathy. The median time between the primary procedure and PR was 8.5 days for the scleral buckle group (interquartile range, 5-55 days) and 31.5 days for the vitrectomy group (interquartile range, 21-52 days) (P = 0.003). Postoperative median visual acuity improved by more than 2 logMAR lines in both the scleral buckle group (P = 0.0008) and the vitrectomy group (P = 0.007), with no difference between groups (P = 0.19). The overall complication rate in our patients was 16%, including transient intraocular pressure rise and development of tears requiring further indirect laser retinopexy within 3 months. None of the patients had vitreous hemorrhage, subretinal gas, or endophthalmitis.

Rescue PR seems to be a safe and effective method of treating recurrent retinal detachment after both unsuccessful scleral buckling and vitrectomy.