After surgery for retinal detachment During the post-operative period: Your eye may be uncomfortable for several weeks, particularly if a scleral buckle has been used. Your vision will be blurry – it may take some weeks or even three to six months for your vision to improve.
After surgery, the quality of vision depends on where the detachment occurred, and the cause: If the central area of vision (macula) was not involved, vision will usually be very good. If the macula was involved for less than 1 week, vision will usually be improved, but not to 20/20 (normal).
You will need 2 to 4 weeks to recover before returning to your normal activities. This care sheet gives you a general idea about how long it will take for you to recover. But each person recovers at a different pace. Follow the steps below to get better as quickly as possible.
In such cases, glasses or contact lenses are of no help and require visual aids for retinal detachment to assist in retaining the leftover vision. Some visual aids used are magnifiers, standing and hand-held magnifiers, strong magnifying reading glasses, loupes, and small telescopes.
Living with the effects of retinal detachment can be daunting at first. Treatment is available, but its success can depend on how quickly it happens – and how much damage has already occurred. However, most people live independently with a good level of vision following retinal detachment surgery.
The most common restrictions following retinal detachment repair include avoiding air travel, maintaining certain head positions, and avoiding high-level visual tasks. A retinal detachment occurs when the retina spontaneously separates from the back of the eye, most commonly between the ages of 50 and 70.
If you have symptoms of retinal detachment, go to your eye doctor or the emergency room right away. Retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss — but getting treatment right away can help protect your vision.
Joseph Pulitzer
The newspaper publisher behind the well-known Pulitzer Prize had a retinal detachment at the age of 42. Although blindness eventually meant the end of his 16-hour workdays, Pulitzer continued to manage the New York World newspaper from home up until retirement.
The success rate for retinal detachment surgery is approximately 90% with a single operation. This means that 1 in 10 people (10%) will need more than one operation. The reasons for this are new tears forming in the retina or the eye forming scar tissue which contracts and pulls off the retina again.
In the 7 to 10 days after the operation, the gas bubble slowly starts to shrink. As this happens, the space that was taken up by the gas fills with the natural fluid made by your eye, and your vision should start to improve. It generally takes 6 to 8 weeks for the gas to be absorbed and vision to improve.
After surgery for retinal detachment
During the post-operative period: Your eye may be uncomfortable for several weeks, particularly if a scleral buckle has been used. Your vision will be blurry – it may take some weeks or even three to six months for your vision to improve.
You should avoid exercising for at least 2 weeks following your surgery. You may resume normal activities, little by little. After week 1, you may start by walking as much as a mile. You may advance to 2 miles, in the second week and can typically run by week six.
The most common cause of tractional retinal detachment is diabetic retinopathy — an eye condition in people with diabetes. Diabetic retinopathy damages blood vessels in the retina and can scar your retina. As the scars get bigger, they can pull on your retina and detach it from the back of your eye.
Pneumatic Retinopexy
This approach treats noncomplex RRD, which is retinal detachment caused by a small retinal hiatus at the top and back of the retina. Pneumatic retinopexy (PR) is the least invasive form of RRD surgery and can reduce recurrence rates and shorten recovery time.
It's possible to get a detached retina more than once. You may need a second surgery if this happens. Talk to your provider about preventive steps you can take to protect your vision. If you notice symptoms returning, call your provider right away.
As a general rule, retinal detachment occurs in both eyes in about one in ten patients with an initial retinal detachment in one eye. The second detachment in the fellow eye may occur even years later.
If you have a retinal detachment, you may need surgery to reattach your retina to the back of your eye within a few days. After surgery, you may need to stay in the hospital for a short time — and it might take a few weeks before your vision starts getting better.
The clear benefit of retinal detachment surgery is that it prevents you from blindness in that eye. The degree of recovery of vision is dependent upon a multitude of factors.
Seek immediate medical attention if you are experiencing the signs or symptoms of retinal detachment. Retinal detachment is a medical emergency in which you can permanently lose your vision.
Retinal detachment causes blindness and affects approximately 1 in 10,000.
Over a lifetime, about 3 in 100 people will experience a detached retina. That makes it much less common than major causes of vision loss, such as glaucoma and cataracts. But the consequences can be serious.
Aging and Retinal Detachment
Retinal detachment is more common in people age 50 and over. The average age of retinal detachment diagnosis in the United States is 57 for males and 62 for females, according to the American Optometric Association.
If you frequently experience stress you might wonder, can stress cause retinal detachment? The simple answer is no, stress cannot cause retinal detachment.
Do not perform any “jarring” or strenuous activities like jumping, running, or straining until your surgeon has given you permission. Keep the eye patch and shield on until the morning after surgery. Take the patch and shield off the morning after surgery and begin using your post-operative eye drops as directed.
You need to maintain a specific head position for at least three days after surgery. You will need to sleep with head tilted to the side opposite to where the retina break is found at the time of surgery to allow the gas bubble to keep the retina in place around the break area until the retina seals in that area.