Pneumatic retinopexy versus scleral buckling: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Pneumatic retinopexy (PR) is a technique for repairing certain retinal detachments which is easier to perform than conventional sceral buckling (SB) surgery but has comparable results. We performed a prospective, randomised, controlled trial to determine for ourselves whether PR is a safe and acceptable procedure. Twenty patients presenting consecutively with retinal detachments which fulfilled the selection criteria were randomised to have their detachments repaired by either PR or SB, ten patients in each group. The suitable patients had a single retinal break or small group of breaks of not greater than one clock hour in size, situated within the superior eight clock hours of retina. Patients with significant proliferative vitreoretinopathy or other fundus disorders were excluded. All patients in the PR group had local anaesthesia while all those in the SB group had general anaesthesia. Successful reattachment of the retina was achieved with one or more procedures in 90 percent of the PR group and in 100 percent of the SB group. We feel that narrowing the selection criteria for PR may further improve the success rate.