Retinal detachment. A study of a population-based patient material in Sweden 1971-1981. IV. Prediction of surgical outcome.

The association between the outcome of 531 surgically treated retinal detachments (RD) and preoperative findings was studied by logistic univariate and multivariate analysis. The following factors were significantly, and negatively associated with the surgical results: 1) previous RD in the same eye, 2) pre-operative visual acuity less than 2/60, 3) cloudy ocular media and/or a poorly dilated pupil, 4) an RD area of more than three quadrants, and 5) no retinal breaks detected. In the multivariate analysis no significant association was found for 9 factors: open angle glaucoma, interval of more than 2 months between symptoms and surgery, aphakia, pre-operative hypotony, absence of demarcation lines, posterior retinal breaks, pre-operative proliferative vitreo-retinopathy, sex and age. The significant factors combined with aphakia were studied in all conceivable combinations. The estimated probability of failure varied between 4 and 93%, indicating that the most important factors were observed.