Influence of Posterior Vitreous Detachment on Retinal Detachment After Lens Surgery in Myopic Eyes

Phacoemulsification with implantation of posterior chamber lenses represents the gold standard of care for patients needing lens surgery, but there is an increased risk of developing pseudophakic retinal detachment after surgery. Especially myopic patients have an even higher risk of pseudophakic retinal detachment compared to the general population.

The aim of this multicenter study is to document the presence and/or post-operative development of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) and to assess its influence on the incidence of retinal detachment (RD) in myopes in a time period of three and five years after lens surgery.

618 eyes of patients scheduled for regular lens surgery will be included, defined by an axial length of 25.0 mm or more. To examine the vitreous status, all patients will receive a comprehensive eye examination pre-operatively, including funduscopy with assessment of a Weiss ring and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Patients will be divided into two groups, group A with pre-operative complete PVD and group B with no/partial PVD. Group A will be invited for one follow-up visit (two months post-operatively) followed up by telephone interviews at one, two, three and five years after surgery to determine occurrence of pseudophakic retinal detachment. Group B will be invited for follow-up examinations at two months, six months and one year after surgery to document occurrence of PVD (if a PVD is present at one of the follow-ups, no more visits are necessary). Two, three and five years after surgery, all patients from group B will be interviewed by telephone, as in group A, to document the occurrence of pseudophakic retinal detachment.

In the recent literature the association between the occurrence of PVD pre-/post-operative and RD after lens surgery is well documented but not described for myopic patients. The results of this multicenter study should help to tackle the problem of RD prediction in myopic patients depending on their pre-operative vitreous status, especially in the setting of refractive lens exchange.