Scleral buckling versus vitrectomy for young japanese patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in the era of microincision surgery: real‐world evidence from a multicentre study in Japan

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>To evaluate real‐world evidence for young Japanese patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">RRD</jats:styled-content>) by retrospectively examining surgical procedures and clinical outcomes in the Japan Clinical Retina Study group.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>This was a multicentre retrospective study of the medical records of 562 young patients (384 males and 178 females; mean age: 33.0 ± 11.8 years) who had been diagnosed with <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">RRD</jats:styled-content> and who underwent surgical procedures in participating centres during the period between April 2013 and August 2016.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The selected surgeries were scleral buckling (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">SB</jats:styled-content>) for 295 eyes (49.7%) and pars plana vitrectomy (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content>) for 262 eyes (44.1%). Between the two surgical procedures, there was no significant difference in the primary anatomical reattachment rate (PARR, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">SB</jats:styled-content> = 92.2%, <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content> = 93.9%); improvements in vision were noted in both groups. The incidences of proliferative vitreoretinopathy and cataract formation within 1 year of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content> were 2.3% (p = 0.0047) and 6.5% (p = 0.0005), whereas they were 0% and 1.0% in the <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">SB</jats:styled-content> group, respectively.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Scleral buckling (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">SB</jats:styled-content>) and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content> were chosen with almost equal frequency for young patients with <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">RRD</jats:styled-content>. Clinical outcomes for <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">SB</jats:styled-content> and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content> exhibited a similar PARR. The incidence of cataract formation after <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PPV</jats:styled-content> may constitute an important limitation of the procedure.</jats:p></jats:sec>