Purpose: To establish a scoring system to triage patients presenting with symptoms of flashes and floaters to allow safe differentiation between those with retinal tears and detachments, versus uncomplicated posterior vitreous detachments (PVDs).
Methods: Prospective and retrospective audits of 153 patients presenting to eye casualty and vitreoretinal clinics to ascertain the clinical features most likely to be associated with retinal pathology, rather than simple PVD. We then developed a scoring system, which was applied to 160 patients in a further prospective audit.
Results: The significant risk factors, symptoms and signs were identified then given a number related to their importance: male sex 1, myopia 1, blurred vision 2, shadow 2, vitreous haemorrhage 3, tobacco dust 4. The scores were summed and a total score > 3 was more likely to be a complicated PVD. Sensitivity of the scoring system was 90% (confidence interval (CI) 68.3-98.8%), specificity 80% (CI 73.2-86.9%), positive predictive value 40% (CI 25.7-55.7%), and negative predictive value 98.26% (CI 93.9-99.8%).
Conclusions: The BElfast Retinal Tear and detachment Score is an easy to apply scoring system, which has a high sensitivity and negative predictive value i.e. nearly all retinal tears or detachments are detected by the scoring system.