[Preventive cryotherapy of the retina and cataract surgery]

The prevention of aphakic retinal detachment by cryotherapy is controversial. No study up to now has compared results. We performed a retrospective study of two groups of patients: both groups consisted of patients with mature cataract and certain risk factors for retinal detachment (myopia, previous retinal detachment in the eye in study or in the fellow eye etc.) in the first group (n = 299) circumferential cryopexy has been performed prior to cataract extraction while in the second group (n = 149) no prophylaxis has been done. Comparison between the two groups did not reveal any protection afforded by prior cryotherapy: despite the prophylactic cryotherapy, 7 patients (2.3%) in the first group developed a retinal detachment post cataract extraction; two patients (1.3%) in the second group developed a retinal detachment; both were high-risk patients. These results lead us to conclude that prophylactic treatment does not necessarily prevent this complication. The best prophylaxis appears to be careful regularly performed examination of the peripheral retina both pre- and post-operatively.