Retinal Tear Discussion

[ckissick]

I had a retinal tear on December 1st, and had it repaired with laser surgery. Then I had another one in the other eye on Wednesday and had it repaired with a laser, like last time. My question is, have any of you had this happen multiple times, and if so, how often? Or just one or two and done? I'm 67 now, and don't want this to become a regular thing.

[stevej37]

Not me...but my brother who is 79 had it happen this past summer. The laser surgery went good and he has had no problem with the other eye...yet.

[masraum]

The missus had it occur several years back (early 60s) in conjunction with (likely due to) a vitreous detachment. She ended up having the laser stuff along with a vitrectomy (they took out 70+% of the fluid in the eye) because the air bubble helps hold things in place. She hasn't had any other issues (other than cataracts).

My understanding is that pretty much everyone that lives to a ripe old age will eventually have vitreous detachment. If you're lucky, that's it. If you aren't lucky, then it may cause a tear (they can be caused other ways as well).

[dad911]

No tear but multiple blood vessel leaks since June. Laser surgery 4 weeks ago, all good except a few floaters remain and a nighttime light scatter, that may be from prior eye surgeries.

[rattlsnak]

I had a vitreous detachment a few months ago that has not fully detached. My vision feels like there is a hair or something right in the middle of my center of vision. (what they call a floater) It drives me nuts. Went to the retina specialist and he said it should fully break off in 4-6 weeks, but it has been over 6 months and still there. I'm living in fear that a detached retina will happen any day now..

[pavulon]

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12096617/

Results
The recurrence rate was 24.6%, with early recurrence (≤ 6 weeks) occurring in 14.9% of cases. PPV had a significantly higher recurrence rate (34.8%) compared to SB (19.3%) (p = 0.049). Univariate analysis identified right eye laterality (p = 0.02), high myopia (p = 0.015), proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) (p < 0.001), and ocular comorbidities (p = 0.018) as significant risk factors. Multivariate analysis confirmed right eye laterality (OR: 3.7, p = 0.016), high myopia (OR: 0.34, p = 0.04), and PVR (OR: 0.15, p = 0.005) as independent predictors. Surgeon experience significantly influenced outcomes in univariate analysis (p = 0.001), but not in adjusted models.

Conclusions
RRD recurrence remains prevalent occurring in nearly one-quarter of repaired RRD cases, predominantly within the early postoperative period. Surgical technique, laterality, and ocular characteristics significantly impacted recurrence risk. These findings highlight the need for individualized surgical planning and enhanced surveillance in high-risk patients, particularly during the critical first postoperative weeks.

Everyone wants to think their surgeon is great. Some are not and even those who are known can often get new jobs doing the same poor work.

[E Sully]

Many years back I had vitreous detachment. Flashes and floaters were quite annoying. My brother in-law owns a couple of eye glass stores. His Dr. took a look, saw quite a few floaters and sent me to an ophthalmologist. I was told it was quite normal, and my brain would adjust over time, which is true.
A few years later had pain in my right eye and went to the ophthalmologist thinking I had gotten some foreign object stuck in my eye. I have had bits removed twice over my career in construction. Objects removed, patch and antibiotics all was well.
That visit the Dr. said she didn't see anything lodged, so I scheduled my next regular visit and left. The next regular visit she took did an exam and took a few photos of my interior eye. She looked at them and suddenly gave me a script and address of a specialist group and told me to make an immediate appointment.
Instead of calling for an appointment I drove there to make one. I gave the script to the receptionist. She got up and went straight to the back and one of the Doctors came out quickly. I was a bit confused by all this, especially when the Dr. asked me if I came with someone who could drive me home. I told him no, I came alone.
The doctor took me immediately into a room and starting doing a serious exam. I asked what was going on, and he told me I had a retinal tear and might have to do immediate laser surgery. Next thing I know I am given an anesthetic and 3 doctors are looking deeply at my eye. Specialized device is photographing it and they are reviewing it closely. They are even squeezing my eye like one of those squishy toys.
I have been quite scared throughout this not knowing what was going on. They finally tell me the about the results. I have a tear, but it is old and healed on it's own. Seems as though the initial ophthalmologist had missed the fact that I had a tear when I came in thinking I had foreign matter in my eye. Fortunately for me it healed on it's own and I didn't need the laser.

[GH85Carrera]

My dad had a rental detachment, and they injected some medicine into his eye that caused a dark bubble that floated to the top of the eye to help keep things in place to heal. Of course the human eye, like all lenses invert the image, so the bubble showed up in the bottom of his eye. He said if he tilted his head, it would move around. He was under doctor's orders to not bend over more than 40 degrees. It lasted a few months. In the end all was well.

That is one reason I have always gone to an ophthalmologists, and not just an optometrist. So far my retinas are well attached.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by E Sully

Many years back I had vitreous detachment. Flashes and floaters were quite annoying. My brother in-law owns a couple of eye glass stores. His Dr. took a look, saw quite a few floaters and sent me to an ophthalmologist. I was told it was quite normal, and my brain would adjust over time, which is true.
A few years later had pain in my right eye and went to the ophthalmologist thinking I had gotten some foreign object stuck in my eye. I have had bits removed twice over my career in construction. Objects removed, patch and antibiotics all was well.
That visit the Dr. said she didn't see anything lodged, so I scheduled my next regular visit and left. The next regular visit she took did an exam and took a few photos of my interior eye. She looked at them and suddenly gave me a script and address of a specialist group and told me to make an immediate appointment.
Instead of calling for an appointment I drove there to make one. I gave the script to the receptionist. She got up and went straight to the back and one of the Doctors came out quickly. I was a bit confused by all this, especially when the Dr. asked me if I came with someone who could drive me home. I told him no, I came alone.
The doctor took me immediately into a room and starting doing a serious exam. I asked what was going on, and he told me I had a retinal tear and might have to do immediate laser surgery. Next thing I know I am given an anesthetic and 3 doctors are looking deeply at my eye. Specialized device is photographing it and they are reviewing it closely. They are even squeezing my eye like one of those squishy toys.
I have been quite scared throughout this not knowing what was going on. They finally tell me the about the results. I have a tear, but it is old and healed on it's own. Seems as though the initial ophthalmologist had missed the fact that I had a tear when I came in thinking I had foreign matter in my eye. Fortunately for me it healed on it's own and I didn't need the laser.

Yikes, that could have been bad, but turned out amazingly well. I guess if it had been a more major tear, you'd have known. When my wife had a tear, I guess the retina sagged down or folded over or something, so she had a dark shadow (opaque) that obscurred part of her field of view. That was a sure sign that there was a problem.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My dad had a rental detachment, and they injected some medicine into his eye that caused a dark bubble that floated to the top of the eye to help keep things in place to heal. Of course the human eye, like all lenses invert the image, so the bubble showed up in the bottom of his eye. He said if he tilted his head, it would move around. He was under doctor's orders to not bend over more than 40 degrees. It lasted a few months. In the end all was well.

That is one reason I have always gone to an ophthalmologists, and not just an optometrist. So far my retinas are well attached.

It sounds like his tear was at the very top of the retina, hence, no bending over. My wife had a bubble that was almost the entire eye (they removed over 70% of the fluid in the eye and left air). She had to stay face down 24x7 for at least a week (may have been longer) so the air bubble would hold the retina in place. Over the course of about a month, the eye slowly filled back up with fluid. Toward the end, she had the moving bubble at the bottom of her vision (top of the eye).

[JeremyD]

Apparently if you have light colored eyes, you are more susceptible to having early vitreous detachment. I have had it in both my eyes - left eye produced a tear/hole that was repaired with a laser - and while that was happening, also badly scratched my cornea. That was fun and took me around 3 months to get to stabilize. I do have floaters in both eyes - my left eye being more pronounced than my right. I have found that eating pineapple helps reduce the floaters a little

[masraum]

Originally Posted by JeremyD

Apparently if you have light colored eyes, you are more susceptible to having early vitreous detachment. I have had it in both my eyes - left eye produced a tear/hole that was repaired with a laser - and while that was happening, also badly scratched my cornea. That was fun and took me around 3 months to get to stabilize. I do have floaters in both eyes - my left eye being more pronounced than my right. I have found that eating pineapple helps reduce the floaters a little

Two very interesting bits of info!