PNEUMATIC RETINOPEXY VERSUS SCLERAL BUCKLING - A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Pneumatic retinopexy (PR) is a technique for repairing certain retinal detachments which is easier to perform than conventional sceral buckl ing (SB) surgery but has comparable results. We performed a prospectiv e, randomised, controlled trial to determine for ourselves whether PR is a safe and acceptable procedure. Twenty patients presenting consecu tively with retinal detachments which. fulfilled the selection criteri a were randomised to have their detachments repaired by either PR or S B, ten patients in each group. The suitable patients had a single reti nal break or small group of breaks of not greater than one clock hour in size, situated within the superior eight clock hours of retina. Pat ients with significant proliferative vitreoretinopathy or other fundus disorders were excluded. All patients in the PR group had local anaes thesia while all those in the SB group had general anaesthesia. Succes sful reattachment of the retina was achieved with one or more procedur es in 90 percent of the PR group and in 100 percent of the SB group. W e feel that narrowing the selection criteria for PR may further improv e the success rate.