Ophthalmology Expert Opines on Critical Delay in Retinal Detachment Repair

Case Overview

This case involves a female patient who suffered a retinal detachment after she was struck in the eye during a softball game. The patient underwent a repair procedure in the days following the injury, however the procedure was complicated by a suprachoroidal hemorrhage. The patient was discharged after the procedure with instructions to follow up should her vision deteriorate. A few days later, the patient returned to hospital reporting vision loss, pain, and redness. She was diagnosed with recurrent retinal detachment, and was told that she needed to wait for the return of her treating ophthalmologist to proceed with the procedure to reattach her retina. The procedure was performed a few days later, however the patient continued suffers from permanent vision loss, allegedly due to the delay she experienced before undergoing surgery.

Questions to the Ophthalmology expert and their responses

Do you routinely perform retinal detachment repairs?

I routinely treat patients with rhegmatogenous and complex retinal detachments. I am a fellowship trained, board certified vitreoretinal surgeon and have been performing retinal detachment repairs for the past 6 years. My surgical approach utilizes state-of-the-art sutureless 25-gauge vitrectomy surgery which is often combined with scleral buckling depending on the retinal configuration.

Can you speak to complications that can occur during retinal detachment repair, such as a suprachoroidal hemorrhage?

I am able to definitively speak to complications that occur during retinal detachment repair including suprachoroidal hemorrhages, recurrent detachment, and proliferative vitreoretinopathy.

Are you familiar with patients who have recurrent retinal detachment?

With these techniques, I have successfully repaired first time detachment, recurrent detachment, and complex detachments due to proliferative vitreoretinopathy and diabetic retinopathy.

Can you speak to the correlation between timely repair of retinal detachment and long term side effects, such as vision loss?

Depending on the configuration of the retinal detachment, there are guidelines to how quickly a repair should be done, and it seems like the delay experienced here was a critical factor in the patient's vision loss.

About the expert

This expert graduated from medical school at New York University and completed an Ophthalmology residency and a two-year subspecialty fellowship in diseases and surgery of the retina and vitreous at the University of Kentucky. He is the Director of the Ocular Electrophysiology Service and specializes in age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment, and uveitis at a major university medical center. Additionally, this expert is actively involved in clinical trials for new treatments for eye diseases. At the University, he leads a basic science research program on retinal aging and inflammation and has published his work in revered journals such as New England Journal of Medicine and Nature.