Indentation microsurgery: internal searching for retinal breaks.

Breaks responsible for rhegmatogenous retinal detachments in 78 eyes could not be seen preoperatively owing to opacities in the media, previous buckling or other causes. Deep kinetic indentation of the sclera combined with endoillumination enabled retinal breaks to be identified during closed microsurgery in 95% of these eyes, and retinal reattachment was eventually achieved in 85%.