A reduced incidence of cystoid macular edema following retinal detachment surgery using diathermy

Cystoid macular edema (CME) is recognized as an important cause of decreased visual acuity following successful retinal detachment surgery. Postoperative fluorescein angiographic studies suggest an incidence of up to 28% in phakic patients, and 50% in aphakic cases. Cryotherapy was used with scleral buckling in all these previous studies. In the series reported here, diathermy with scleral buckling was used to reattach the retina. In 126 phakic eyes the incidence of CME was 5.6% (7 cases). This is the lowest incidence reported in any series. We attribute these results to reduced intraocular inflammation using diathermy as compared to cryotherapy.