Objective: A retrospective study was performed to establish the incidence of retinal detachment among 107 patients (165 eyes) with pathologic myopia who underwent clear-lens extraction.
Interventions: The techniques employed were intracapsular extraction (3.0%), aspiration (59.4%), and extracapsular extraction (37.6%); average follow-up was 31 months.
Results: Retinal detachment developed in 12 eyes (7.3%) an average (SD) of 30.7 +/- 26.6 months postoperatively; the mean age of these patients was 34 years. We found a clear association between postoperative YAG laser/surgical posterior capsulotomy and the incidence of retinal detachment (11% vs 5.5%) but no association between intraoperative rupture of the posterior capsule and the ultimate incidence of retinal detachment. The retina was reattached in nine cases (75%).