Retinal tears and detachments after extracapsular cataract surgery.

A review of 3,120 consecutive cases of extracapsular cataract extraction revealed a retinal detachment incidence of 0.8% and a retinal tear incidence of 0.9%. Approximately 85% of all tears and detachments occurred within the first three years of cataract surgery. Analysis of the retinal detachment group identified several risk factors. These included young age, male sex, axial length greater than 25 mm, primary posterior capsulotomy, and previous retinal surgery in the fellow eye. In the retinal tear group, the risk factors were young age and previous retinal surgery in the fellow eye. Visual results were excellent with an average of one line of acuity lost after successful macula-on and macula-off detachment surgery and no significant change after retinal tear repair. Despite multiple surgeries, the retinas in two detachments were lost to proliferative vitreoretinopathy.