Purpose: Analysis of the clinical and therapeutic results of giant retinal tears after ocular blunt trauma.
Patients and methods: We performed a retrospective review of nine patients with giant retinal tears associated to retinal detachment after ocular blunt trauma. The traumatic giant retinal tear was a peripheral break of 90 degrees or greater. Seven patients had myopia. Primary management of retinal detachment included, scleral buckling and external drainage of subretinal fluid, in 2 cases. Vitrectomy with fluid-silicone oil exchange was used in 7 cases and perfluorodecalin in 3 cases.
Results: Our results indicate that myopia was the principal risk factor of blunt trauma retinal tears, which appear even when the contusion was not too violent or indirect. Successful results were not obtained with episcleral surgery alone (2 cases). With primar vitrectomy, the success rate was 57%. The overall success rate was 66.6% with an average acuity of 2/10.
Conclusion: High myopia is the principal risk factor of giant retinal tear after blunt ocular trauma. The prognosis of this retinal detachment depends on the grade of proliferative vitreoretinopathy.