Relationship of cystic retinal tufts to retinal detachment

The histologic and gross pathologic features of cystic retinal tufts are reviewed, and the clinical characteristics of this lesion described. A survey of 200 retinal detachments revealed that cystic retinal tuft was the precipitating lesion for the detachment in from 6.5 to 10% of cases. Since the prevalence of cystic retinal tuft is 5%, the risk of such a lesion leading to retinal detachment was computed to be from 0.18 to 0.28%, and for this reason prophylactic treatment of cystic retinal tufts is not advised.