[Prospects for surgical treatment of retinal detachment (author's transl)]

In the light of experiences gathered in the surgical treatment of over 1500 cases of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in a period of 12 years the authors believe that, despite advances in surgical technique and the prospects of further technical improvements outlined here our therapeutic capability will not be increased sufficiently to enable us to cure "malignant" detachments. Hence the authors think that there is a certain limit to the number of successful operations which will not be exceeded. This limit is 80-85% in unselected material and about 95% in cases with good prognosis.