Success Rates of Scleral Buckling with and without Retinopexy

To compare the anatomical results of scleral buckling surgery with and without retinopexy in the management of phakic rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RD). In this retrospective, nonrandomized, interventional, comparative case series, data of 71 phakic eyes of 71 patients with rhegmatogenous RD that had undergone scleral buckling were evaluated. The procedure in 41 consecutive eyes was accompanied by retinopexy using intraoperative transscleral cryotherapy (6 cases) or postoperative laser photocoagulation (35 cases).The next 30 eyes did not receive retinopexy.The primary outcome measure was retinal redetachment rate.The secondary outcomes measures were final visual acuity and the occurrence of cystoid macular edema and macular pucker. The two groups were matched regarding age, sex, history of trauma or high myopia, and duration of RD before the surgery as well as the characteristics of the breaks and RD except for RD externt which was more in the non-retinopexy group. Retinal redetachment occurred in 4 patients (13.3%) in the non-retinopexy group and in 6 patients (14.6%) in the retinopexy group.The difference was not statistically significant (P>0.999).Neither was the difference between the groups significant in terms of final visual acuity and the occurrence of cystoid macular edema and macular pucker. Retinopexy does not seem to offer additional benefit to scleral buckling surgery for phakic rhegmatogenous RD in terms of anatomical and functional success. However, thses findings have to be confirmed in a randomized clinical trial.