Foveal Reattachment following Successful Surgery for Macula-off Retinal Detachment: Deep Vitrectomy versus Scleral Buckling

To compare deep vitrectomy and scleral buckling for management of macula-off retinal detachment regarding the time course of foveal reattachment. This non-randomized clinical trial included 25 patients with spontaneous rhegmatogenous retinal detachments. Patients underwent deep vitrectomy (11 patients) or scleral buckling (14 eyes) based on the accepted indications. Patients underwent a complete ophthalmic examination as well as optical coherence tomography (OCT) pre- and 1, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. OCT revealed that the fovea was completely attached with no subfoveal fluid in all cases of deep vitrectomy 1, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. However in the scleral buckling group there was a small subclinical area of subfoveal fluid on OCT in 8 eyes (57.2%) at one month, in 7 eyes (50%) at 6 months and in 3 eyes (21.4%) at 12 months postoperatively. Deep vitrectomy for macula-off retinal detachment results in complete foveal reattachment without delay according to OCT results and therefore may be superior to scleral buckling.