Retinal detachment surgery is effective in about 9 out of 10 cases and it should be remembered that most eyes that have a retinal detachment will go blind if left untreated. Surgery may however fail to re-attach the retina in which case further surgery is usually recommended and successful. Other complications may occur

The commonest complication of retinal detachment surgery is the development of a cataract and this can be expected in almost all patients who undergo vitrectomy who have not already had a cataract operation. A cataract occurs within months to 2 years after the detachment surgery. It manifests as increasing haze and short sightedness in the eye and some people are aware that the strength of their glasses needs to be changed very frequently after a vitrectomy operation. Cataract surgery following vitrectomy operations is now a standard procedure and has very good results. We are also increasingly performing cataract surgery at the time of a vitrectomy retinal detachment repair.

There are some other relatively rare complications which can be serious. These include haemorrhage within the eye, infection and glaucoma. Excluding failure of the operation (10%) less than 2% of patients would be expected to have a significant long term sight threatening complication from surgery which was otherwise successful. It should also be remembered that a retinal detachment is a blinding condition and that the results of surgery are far, far better than the results if nothing is done even including the small but ever present chance of complications.