This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Myopes should be tested for asymptomatic retinal detachments before surgery

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

While asymptomatic retinal detachment is rare in myopic patients, refractive surgeons should perform careful fundus examinations to diagnose and treat the condition before performing refractive laser surgery, a study suggests.

To identify the prevalence of asymptomatic retinal detachment, Faik Orucov, MD, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 12,815 myopic eyes of 6,547 patients who received ophthalmic examinations before undergoing excimer laser surgery between March 2002 and March 2006. The study results are published in the October issue of British Journal of Ophthalmology.

At baseline, spherical equivalent averaged –4.42 D and best corrected visual acuity averaged 20/20.

The investigators found that asymptomatic retinal detachment had been detected during routine preoperative examinations in five eyes (0.039%) of four patients.

Three of these eyes underwent successful scleral buckling; two patients were lost to follow-up.