Retinal displacement following successful pars plana vitrectomy for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment

Background The appearance of hyperfluorescent lines next to the retinal blood vessels after successful retinal detachment (RD) surgery was explained by the occurrence of retinal displacement. This can attribute to the metamorphopsia experienced by some patients after their surgeries. Patients and methods A prospective interventional study was performed that included 30 eyes of 30 patients with primary rhegmatogenous RD, who had undergone successful RD surgery via pars plana vitrectomy and silicone oil tamponade. The entire patients had preoperative and postoperative fundus autofluorescence and optical coherence tomography. They were followed up for 3 months after surgery with testing of the best-corrected visual acuity and Amsler grid testing. Results The mean age of the included group was 53.7±9.2 years, and 17 (56.7%) patients were males. The most frequent tear site was upper temporal (43.3%), followed by multiple peripheral (23.33%), upper nasal (13.3%), lower temporal (13.3%), and the least was lower nasal (6.7%). Retinal displacement was detected by hyperfluorescent lines adjacent to the retinal blood vessels in the fundus autofluorescence imaging in 16 eyes (53.3% with 95% confidence interval: 36.7–70.0%). Patients with retinal displacement were significantly younger than patients without (P=0.019). The presence of proliferative vitreoretinopathy was significantly related to the occurrence of displacement (P=0.028). Metamorphopsia was significantly more frequent among patients with displacement (P<0.001). Conclusion Retinal displacement had a high possibility to occur after successful repair of primary rhegmatogenous RD. Young patients and patients with proliferative vitreoretinopathy are at a higher risk for displacement.