Subjects

This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Saarland Medical Association (approval number 243/14) and was in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.

We included all patients (154 eyes from 154 patients) with a primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment treated in the Eye Clinic Suzbach/Saar Germany between 2015 and 2017 who were operated on by two experienced surgeons using the same basic surgical setup. All patients received a pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) without the use of buckling surgery. Preoperative evaluation included best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), a full slit-lamp and fundus examination, a fundus drawing, and a spectral domain optical coherence tomography scan (SD-OCT) (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany). Only patients with a primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment were included into this study. The symptom duration in our patient collective did not exceed two weeks. Patients with previous retinal re-detachment and tractional retinal detachment, caused by advanced diabetic eye disease, for example, were excluded. We also excluded patients with high myopia (spherical equivalent below -6 diopters or axial length above 26.5 mm), posttraumatic eyes and strong PVR reactions (exceeding PVR grade B in the Retina Society classification).

A standard procedure in surgical emergencies (per se) is rather difficult, and the surgical evolution during each surgery can differ. The “surgeon factor” is a possible influence; consequently, we chose to engage two specialized retinal surgeons who had each performed well over 2000 vitrectomies. Both surgeons used the same vitrectomy system and the same opm with similar settings. For the purpose of improved standardization of our analysis, we decided to only include primary retinal detachments that were considered uncomplicated by the operating surgeon.

To ensure the safety and efficacy of the postoperative position after rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, the postoperative position was directly communicated to the patient by the surgeon and periodically monitored by the medical staff.