Effect of perfluorocarbon use during rhegmatogenous retinal detachment surgery on postoperative outcomes

Purpose: To determine whether the use of perfluorocarbon liquid (PFCL) affects the rate of retinal re-attachments after an initial attachment by vitrectomy in eyes with a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD).Methods. This was a retrospective, observational, multicenter study of 3,446 eyes registered in the Japanese Vitreoretinal Surgery Treatment Information Database. Of these, 2,648 eyes had undergone vitrectomy as the first surgery for a RRD. The re-attachment rates after the primary vitrectomy with or without PFCL were evaluated. In addition, the significance of factors affecting the re-detachment were determined by univariate and multivariate analyses. The measured outcomes were the rates of re-attachments after the primary vitrectomy with or without the use of PFCL.Results: A total of 2,362 eyes in the database were analyzed: 325 had and 2,037 did not have PFCL injected into the vitreous cavity during the vitrectomy. The rate of re-attachments was 91.5% in the PFCL group and 93.2% in the non-PFCL group (P=0.46, chi-square test). Although there were several risk factors associated with the re-detachments in eyes without PFCL (P<0.05, Welch's t tests, and Fisher's exact tests), they were not associated in eyes with PFCL use. However, multivariate analyses showed that there was no significant association between the use or the non-use of PFCL in the rate of re-detachments (beta=-0.08, P=0.46).Conclusions: The use of PFCL during the initial vitrectomy for RRD does not affect the rate of re-attachments.