Surgical outcomes in juvenile retinal detachment.

PURPOSE To evaluate retrospectively clinical features and surgical outcomes of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in juvenile patients. METHODS Between 1991 and 1996, 28 patients younger than 15 years of age with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (32 eyes) underwent the first surgical procedure, scleral buckling and/or pars plana vitrectomy, at our hospital. RESULTS The major types of juvenile detachment, in order of frequency, were idiopathic, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, trauma, and high myopia. Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) of grade C or D was involved in 12 cases (37.5%). Among the 12 eyes with PVR, 7 attained retinal reattachment after the first surgery with scleral buckling. The overall reattachment rate was 28/32 (87.5%) after the first operation and 30/32 (93.8%) after the second operation. CONCLUSION These findings indicate that the reattachment rate and visual prognosis can be as good in juvenile retinal detachment as in adult cases, when appropriate surgical procedures are used.