Long-term results of retinal detachment surgery.

Patients treated successfully with retinal detachment surgery 11-39 years earlier were called back and examined. The average age was 35 years at the time of surgery and the average interval between the operation and this follow-up examination was 16 years. The visual acuity had decreased in many patients. The most frequent causes of this fall in visual acuity after surgery were cataract and macular degeneration. Chorioretinal atrophy with blackish pigment spots developed in the reattached retina a long time after surgery and caused defects in the visual fields. This atrophy seems to be related to the long duration of retinal detachment before and after operation, which may cause malnutrition of the detached retina and result in incomplete recovery of visual cells, leading to chorioretinal atrophy. Macular degeneration was caused or accelerated by detachment of the macula. There was no difference in postoperative ocular findings between only diathermy and combination of diathermy with segmental scleral-buckling procedures. However, Arruga's ring suture method induced cataract more frequently than did other surgical procedures.