Characteristics and Epidemiology of Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment in Pakistan

Muhammad Tariq Khan

Objective
To study the Presenting characteristics and Epidemiology of Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in Pakistani Population

Study Design
Observational

Place and Duration
Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust Hospital (LRBT), Lahore, Pakistan
June 1, 2008 to Oct 3, 2009

Patients and methods
During the above mentioned Period, 107 eyes were operated on for Rhegmatogenous RD. All eyes were pre-operatively examined using Volk superfield NC lens on slit lamp and operated on by one surgeon. All these eyes had fundus chart drawn in detail as a routine procedure.

Among the pre-operative variables collected from the hospital files were: age and sex of the patients, predisposing risk factors (history of previous intraocular surgery / trauma, Family history of RD, Myopic degenerations or RD in the fellow eye) presence of phakia/psudophakia or aphakia and the duration of symptoms related to RD.

The Detachments were analysed with respect to macular status (macula on/off), extent (No of
quadrents involved), location (which quadrents are involved), types of breaks (holes, tears, perforated lattice, retinal dialysis and Giant retinal tears) and the location of the primary break

Results
The mean age of the patients was 33.1 ± 1.5 (range 10 to 70) years, 85% were males and 15% females. Bilateral RD was discovered in 2.8 % of the cases. There was no identifiable risk factor found in 28% of the cases while in those 72 % with a definite risk factor, intraocular surgery, trauma and peripheral myopic degeneration were main in descending order of frequency. There were 70.1% of phakic, 23.4% psudophakic and 6.5% aphakic eyes involved in the study. Majority of the cases (93.5%) presented with macula off detachment, with an overall average post-symptom presenting time of 97.24 ± 16.95 days. In 31.8 % of eyes no break could be found during pre-operative examination, 38.3 % had only 1 break identified and 29.9% eyes were with 2 or more breaks. Majority of the primary breaks were holes (42.1%). Total retinal detachment was found in 35.5% of eyes. Infero-temporal and supero-temporal are the most frequently involved quadrants (93.5% and 86.9% respectively).

Key words
Retina, Retinal detachment, occurrence, peripheral retinal degenerations, Retinal break