Risk factors

• High myopia.
• Those whose next of kin have a history of retinal detachment, which means that mothers have had retinal detachment, and children have a higher risk of the disease as well.
• Those with ocular trauma or who have undergone eye surgery.

There are three important factors that cause rhegmatogenous retinal detachment: first, retinal tear; second, tension to open the tear, and third, moisture infiltrated into the tear for retinal detachment.

Causes of retinal tears?

Because when the eye is young, the vitreous body is very close to the retina, but only closely attached to the peripheral retina and other places.

As you get older, the vitreous body will liquefy and moisture will appear from the original colloidal substance. However, in high myopia, vitreous liquefaction will occur earlier because of the increase of the anterior and posterior diameters of the eye axis.

Because of moisture infiltration, the vitreous body in contact with the surface of the retina will move to the front of the eyeball, while the surrounding retina which is closely attached to the vitreous body will be dragged and pulled out of the retinal tear

Where does the pulling force that opens the retinal tear come from?

A bundle of vitreous body still adheres to the edge of the retinal tear, as the rest of the vitreous body moving forward will produce a pull that opens the tear. In addition, when working at close range, the ciliary body is in a state of contraction and tension, which also strengthens the vitreous pulling of the retina.

The moisture infiltrated into the retinal tear comes from the original gelatinous substance after vitreous liquefaction, while the rest is aqueous humor secreted by the ciliary body.

After dilated eye examination by an ophthalmologist, if no retinal lesion is confirmed, laser therapy is not necessary to prevent retinal detachment.

However, if lattice degeneration or newly formed retinal tears are found in the peripheral retina, laser treatment is necessary to prevent them from progressing into retinal detachment.

For the same lesion, the laser does not usually need to be repeated unless the retinal tear is enlarged. However, with the aging of the normal retina, there is still the possibility of new tears, so the high-risk group must receive fundus examination at least half a year for early detection and treatment. Because the laser does not create an open wound, it would be much harder if the retinal detachment has to be operated on.