In retinal detachment, the subretinal fluid is absorbed by the choroid when all retinal holes are closed by surgery. It usually takes 16 to 48 hours, but in a few cases it prolongs weeks to months depending on the function of the choroid. There has been few reports on cases whose subretinal fluid persisted for over four months and the mechanism of such a long delay in absorption has never been elucidated.
The hospital charts of 130 surgically treated retinal detachment patients at the Keio University Hospital during the period of August, 1973 to July, 1975 were looked through to pick out cases whose postoperative courses were complicated by the prolonged presence of subretinal fluid for over 4 months in spite of adequate closure of all retinal holes. The out-patient clinic charts of these patients were carefully analysed at the same time to categorize these patients and to find out the mechanism of delay in absorption of subretinal fluid.
The patients were usually young. The retinal detachments were usually shallow with small round holes and involved one or two quadrants. Most of them received a relatively minor procedure without drainage of the subretinal fluid. All had good visual acuity both pre- and postoperatively. Slitlamp examination of the detached retina in these cases indicated that the retina was too short to settle down to the choroidal surface and this seemed to be the mechanism of delay in absorption.
Since these cases eventually reattached and recovered, it was recom-mended to follow these cases conservatively. The importance of recognizing these cases were emphasized and “Tented retina syndrome” was suggested to indicate this state of retina after retinal detachment surgery.
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