Corneal sensation in retinal detachment surgery

We compared the rate of recovery of corneal sensation in two randomly selected groups of patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment whose eyes were otherwise healthy. One of the groups underwent removal of the epithelium and, and the other was characterized by nonremoval of the epithelium. The corneal sensations were measured serially with an esthesiometer. The return of corneal sensation occurred sooner in the nonremoval group than in the removal group in the early postoperative period, but at three months, the difference was negligible.