Retinal detachment with inferior retinal breaks: Primary vitrectomy versus vitrectomy with scleral buckle (PRO Study Report No. 9)

INTRODUCTION Rhegmatogenous retinal detachments with inferior retinal breaks are believed to have a higher risk of recurrent rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. This study compared anatomic and visual outcomes between primary pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and combination PPV with scleral buckle (PPV/SB) for rhegmatogenous retinal detachments with inferior retinal breaks. METHODS This is an analysis of the Primary Retinal Detachment Outcomes study, a multi-institutional cohort study of consecutive primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment surgeries from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015. The primary outcome was single-surgery success rate. Only eyes with inferior retinal breaks (one break in the detached retina between five and seven o'clock) were included. RESULTS There were 238 eyes that met the inclusion criteria, 95 (40%) of which underwent primary PPV and 163 (60%) that underwent combined PPV/SB. The single-surgery success rate was 76.8% for PPV and 87.4% for PPV/SB (P = 0.0355). This remained significant on multivariate analysis (P = 0.01). Subgroup analysis showed that a superior single-surgery success rate of PPV/SB was especially noted in phakic eyes (85.2% vs. 68.6%; P = 0.0464). CONCLUSION Retinal detachment with inferior retinal breaks had a higher single-surgery success rate if treated with PPV/SB compared with PPV alone, particularly in phakic eyes.