Surgical Treatment of Retinal Detachment Following Acute Retinal Necrosis Syndrome: Surgical Results in Four Patients.

Background: Acute retinal necrosis (ARN) syndrome is an uncommon but severe oculardisease that typically affects otherwise healthy individuals. It is frequentlycomplicated with retinal detachment and the visual prognosis in such patientsis usually poor.Methods: We operated on four eyes in four patients from 1999 through 2001. Threeophthalmologists in our hospital did these operations, respectively. The surgicalmethods included pars plana vitrectomy, lensectomy, encircling scleralbuckling combined with membrane dissection, air-fluid exchange, endolaserphotocoagulation, and retinal tamponade with silicone oil or perfluoropropanegas.Results: Three patients received one operation and the other one needed a secondoperation to release the retinal traction. One patient needed a lensectomy atthe time of vitrectomy. Macular attachment was achieved in all four eyes(100%). Vision improved in two patients but none achieved visual acuity betterthan 20/200. The complications were cataract in three patients, macularpucker in three, and silicone keratopathy in one.Conclusion: Our results suggest that modern vitrectomy techniques provide a very highretinal attachment rate in patients with retinal detachment following ARNsyndrome.