Retinal Detachment: Treatment Overview

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Treatment Overview

Only surgery can repair retinal detachment. It is usually successful and, in many cases, restores good vision.

The most common methods of repairing a retinal detachment are:

• Scleral buckling surgery. Your eye doctor (ophthalmologist) places a piece of silicone sponge, rubber, or semi-hard plastic on the outer layer of your eye and sews it in place. This relieves traction on the retina, preventing tears from getting worse, and it supports the layers of the retina.
• Pneumatic retinopexy. Your eye doctor injects a gas bubble into your eye. The bubble floats to the detached area and presses lightly against the tear, closing the tear and flattening the retina so that no fluid can build up under it. Your doctor then uses a freezing probe (cryopexy) or laser beam (photocoagulation) to seal the tear in the retina.
• Vitrectomy, or the removal of the vitreous gel from the eye. Vitrectomy gives the eye doctor better access to the retina to repair holes and close very large tears.

The most common methods of repairing a retinal tear are:

• Laser photocoagulation. Your eye doctor uses an intense beam of light that travels through the eye to make tiny burns around the tear in the retina. The burns form scar tissue, which prevents fluid from entering the tear and collecting under the retina.
• Cryopexy (freezing). Your eye doctor uses a probe to freeze and seal the retina around the tear.

Retinal tears that occur with symptoms (such as floaters or flashes of light) are more likely to lead to a detachment. In these cases, repairing the tear can often prevent detachment. The decision to treat a tear depends on whether the tear is likely to progress to a detachment. For more information, see when to treat a retinal tear.

If you have new or sudden flashes or floaters, darkness over part of your visual field, or a new loss of vision that does not go away, see a doctor or seek emergency care immediately. Sudden, rapid vision loss is a medical emergency.

Last updated:	September 14, 2007
Author:	Jeannette Curtis
Reviewed By:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine, Christopher J. Rudnisky, MD, FRCSC - Ophthalmology
Editors:	Kathleen M. Ariss, MS, Terrina Vail