[Failures of the surgical treatment of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment]

The surgical treatment of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, has considerably improved. But there are still a lot of failures, at least after the first surgical procedure. Out of a group of 320 retinal detachments, a one stage surgical procedure allowed the retina to reattach in 84% of cases. Out of the 51 failures, we defined 2 subgroups: the early recurrences were mainly caused by undiagnosed breaks or insufficient scleral buckling, and the delayed recurrences by a vitreo-retinal proliferation or a new tear. Though a second operation increased the success rate to 97%, it is certainly desirable to lower the failure rate of the first surgical procedure.