[Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in young adults: Clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes]

To report the causes, clinical features and surgical outcomes of retinal detachment (RD) in young adults.

Retrospective study of 111 eyes of 99 patients aged between 18 and 40 years, who underwent primary RD surgery between January 2011 and January 2019. All patients underwent either scleral buckling or pars plana vitrectomy. We analyzed the demographic data, characteristics of the RD, primary and final anatomic success rate and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at the conclusion of follow-up.

The mean age of the patients was 30.3±6.5 years. RD was more frequent in males, with a gender ratio of 1.8. The breaks were atrophic round holes or retinal dialysis in 49 (44.2%) cases and were associated with posterior vitreous detachment in 62 (55.8%) cases. The main etiologies were high myopia (45.0%) and trauma (9.0%). Retinal reattachment was achieved in 74 (66.5%) eyes overall with a single procedure and in 108 (97.2%) eyes with two or more procedures. The primary success rates were 69.6% (46/66 eyes) with scleral buckling and 62.2% (28/45 eyes) with vitrectomy. High myopia was a risk factor for surgical failure (P<0.01). The mean BCVA improved from 0.71±0.64 logMAR to 0.41±0.35 logMAR (P<0.01) CONCLUSION: RD in young adults differs from that in older adults in clinical features and etiology. The main causes are trauma and high myopia. The anatomic outcomes appear less favorable, with a primary reattachment rate of 66.5%. However, the functional prognosis remains satisfactory with an improvement of 3 lines of visual acuity.