Background and purpose: To identify possible agents causing retinal detachment following small-incision, sutureless vitrectomy.
Methods: Computer-based, retrospective analysis to identify all patients who had undergone small-incision sutureless vitrectomy and presented retinal detachment (RD) in the study eye within 6 months postoperatively. The clinical charts of these patients were reviewed.
Results: The investigation involved 2,598 small-incision, sutureless vitrectomies. Thirty-seven eyes presented subsequent RD. Indications for sutureless vitrectomy were idiopathic epiretinal membrane (n = 15), idiopathic macular hole (n = 15), recurrent macular hole (n = 1), rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (n = 5) and vitreous haemorrhage due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) (n = 1). The median time between sutureless vitrectomy and RD presentation was 51 days (range 11-173 days); mean 59 days (SD 46.5). In 14 eyes (38%), the RD was most likely due to the underlying pathology (e.g., unclosed macular hole, reopening of pre-existing retinal tears, worsening of PDR). Twenty-three eyes (62%) presented with new retinal tears that were not in the proximity of the sclerotomies.
Conclusion: In most cases, the RD was not caused by the sutureless technique itself, but was most likely due to the underlying pathology, or due to new retinal tears that were not in the proximity of the sclerotomies.