Clinical Features and Surgical Outcome of Pediatric Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment,
ASSER A.E. ABD EL-MEGUID, AHMAD S. EL-ANTABLY, REHAB R. KASSEM and AHMAD M. KAMAL
Abstract
Purpose: To report the etiology, clinical characteristics and surgical outcome in a series of children presenting with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) to a tertiary referral center in Egypt.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of, a non comparative interventional case series of patients aged between 2 and 18 years who were operated upon over the period interval between June 2005 to January 2008 for primary RRD and completed a follow-up period of 3 months.
Result: The study included 30 eyes of 27 patients 18 males and 9 females with an average age at presentation of 10.37±3.89 years with a range of 4 to 18 years. They were followed up for a time interval of 7 to 26 months with an average of 11.3±5.6 months. Retinal lesions as the primary cause of the retinal detachment has been diagnosed in 53%, postsurgical retinal detachment in 27% while post traumatic in 10%. Late presentation was a common feature and bilateral retinal detachment at presentation was present in 9 cases only 3 of them were operable. Standard three port vitrectomy with silicon oil endotamponade was performed in 29 eyes. There was a rate of retinal reattachment of 94% with an average procedures of 2.4. All successfully operated patients with a reattached retina regained hand movement or better visual acuity.
Conclusion: The retinal reattachment rate in pediatric RRD is encouraging, however it is adversely affected by the presence of PVR making the average no of surgeries per eye higher than in adult cases. Visual improvement is limited by the delayed presentation, but in the majority of cases visual acuity greater than or equal to counting fingers was achieved allowing for ambulatory vision postoperatively. Better health care system may allow for earlier detection of RD with the result of better visual outcome.