scleral buckling with and without retinopexy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment

purpose: to compare the anatomical results of scleral buckling with or without retinopexy and to assess the effect of retinopexy on outcomes of the operation.  methods: this interventional case series was performed on 22 patients undergoing scleral buckling (segmental or encircling) with or without subretinal fluid drainage and without any type of retinopexy and 33 patients who received transscleral retinal cryopexy around retinal break(s) in addition to above procedure. the two groups were matched regarding age, sex, myopia, aphakia, and number, size, and location of the break(s) and also stage of proliferative vitreoretinopathy (pvr). results: in the non-retinopexy group, 19 patients (86.4%) had complete and 1 patient had partial retinal attachment after 10-24 months of follow up. the cause of failure in two cases was missed breaks out of the buckle area in one and pvr in the other patient. overall success rate was 90.9% (20 of 22) in this group. in the retinal cryopexy group, 26 patients (78.9%) had complete and 2 had partial attachment after 11-32 months of follow up. attachment was not achieved in 3 patients and 2 patients developed redetachment 1 and 3 months later because of pvr. overall success rate was 84.8% (28 of 33). the anatomical results in this two groups were comparable statistically (p=0.9). conclusion: with permanent scleral buckling technique, retinal cryopexy does not seem to increase success rate defined as short term anatomical retinal reattachment.