foveal reattachment following successful surgery for macula-off retinal detachment: deep vitrectomy versus scleral buckling

purpose: to compare deep vitrectomy and scleral buckling for management of macula-off retinal detachment regarding the time course of foveal reattachment. methods: 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. results: 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. conclusion: 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.