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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Retinal Detachment Model in Rodents by Subretinal Injection of Sodium Hyaluronate
Published on: September 11, 2013
Demographic Disparities in the Likelihood of Surgical Repair Following Diagnosis of Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment
Ashvin Babu1, Sonia B Kim1, David C Kaelber2
1From the Center for Ophthalmic Bioinformatics, Cole Eye Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA (A.B., S.B.K., K.E.T.); Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA (A.B., S.B.K.).
Purpose:
This US-based large-scale retrospective study evaluates whether demographic differences influence the likelihood of surgical intervention after a diagnosis of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD).
Design:
Retrospective cohort study.
Subjects, Participants, And/Or Controls:
Patients with International Classification of Diseases-Tenth revision encounter diagnosis codes for RRD.
Methods, Intervention, Or Testing:
Through a de-identified electronic health record platform, patients with RRD were separated into sex, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic/psychosocial (SES) cohorts. Pair-wise comparisons were made after 1:1 propensity score matching on age, ocular conditions, SES conditions, and systemic and lifestyle comorbidities. The likelihood of patients to have a common procedural terminology code for RRD repair surgery at 4 time points (within 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months) following RRD was assessed.
Main Outcome Measures:
Risk ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs were reported with a significance threshold of <0.9 or >1.1.
Results:
Following propensity score matching, there were 21,756 patients in the male vs female analysis, 5071 in the White vs Black, 1903 in the White vs Asian, 3279 in the Hispanic vs non-Hispanic, and 2194 in the SES analysis. Males were more likely to receive surgery within 1 day (RR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.24) up to 3 months after RRD (RR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.15, 1.23). Compared with Black patients, White patients were more likely to receive surgery within 1 day (RR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.35, 1.61) up to 3 months (RR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.26, 1.46) after RRD. Both White vs Asian patients and non-Hispanic/Latinos vs Hispanic/Latinos did not have significant differences in time to surgery. Patients without SES conditions were more likely to receive surgery at 1 day (RR = 3.35, 95% CI: 2.73, 4.10) up to 3 months (RR = 2.83, 95% CI: 2.41, 3.34) after RRD. A sensitivity analysis performed between female patients ± SES and Black patients ± SES yielded increased differences. Comparison between patients with reported and unreported race and ethnicity also demonstrated differences up to 3 months.
Conclusions:
Males are more likely to receive surgical intervention for RRD. Significant racial disparities exist in the timely repair of RRD for Black patients and patients with SES conditions. This study highlights continued disparities that exist in the management of RRD.
