[Is scleral buckling still current?]

Abstract

We report a survey among German-speaking vitreo-retinal surgeons, considering their decisive factors and preferred surgical techniques in simple and complicated rhegmatogenous situations. In cases of simple retinal detachment conventional buckling surgery is the favoured surgical approach. Minimal-invasive techniques like the balloon operation or pneumatic retinopexy are chosen by less than 5% of the surgeons. For more complicated retinal detachments a strong trend towards primary vitrectomy becomes apparent. In difficult rhegmatogenous situations which are still treatable with conventional buckling procedures, 45% of surgeons prefer a primary vitrectomy and only 55% chose scleral buckel or encircling band procedures.