Tomographic image and visual recovery of acute macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.
OBJECTIVE
To observe the macula of acute rhegmatogenous retinal detachment involving the macula with optical coherence tomography (OCT) after scleral buckling and to study the relation between pre- and postoperative visual acuity and the OCT image.


METHODS
Prospective study of 15 eyes of 15 patients with macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. We selected cases with preoperative visual acuity worse than 0.5 to analyze the improvement in postoperative visual acuity. The time period between macula-off retinal detachment and surgery was less than 1 week.


RESULTS
Indirect ophthalmoscopy indicated that all retinal detachments were reattached at 2 weeks postoperatively. Accumulation of subretinal fluid at the fovea was observed in nine (60%) cases with OCT. In four of these nine eyes, the accumulation of subretinal fluid persisted up to 6 months after the operation. The presence of residual subretinal fluid did not influence visual recovery during the 6 months' postsurgical follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
OCT revealed postoperative residual subretinal fluid at the macula in some acute macula-off retinal detachment cases. Residual subretinal fluid did not influence the recovery of visual acuity for at least 6 months after surgery.
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8519, Tokyo, Japan. t.baba.oph@tmd.ac.jp
Takayuki
T
Baba
Akira
A
Hirose
Muka
M
Moriyama
Manabu
M
Mochizuki
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003941:Diagnostic Techniques, Ophthalmological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008266:Macula Lutea / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009887:Ophthalmoscopy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D012163:Retinal Detachment / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D012591:Scleral Buckling; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology*