Retinal Detachment

What is retinal detachment?

Retinal detachment is when your retina comes loose from its usual position. Your retina is a thin layer at the back of your eye. It contains the cells your eye uses to detect the light coming into it.

Retinal detachment is rare and only affects about one in 10,000 people per year. It’s most common in people between the ages in 40 and 70, and extremely rare in children.³

Retinal detachment is an emergency and needs to be treated as soon as possible. It can result in vision loss in the affected eye.

Retinal detachment symptoms

Symptoms of retinal detachment include:¹

Flashes of light in your vision, in one or both eyes
Lots of new floaters (dark spots or squiggly lines) in your vision
A dark “curtain” or shadow at the edge of your field of vision
A dark “curtain” or shadow moving across your field of vision
Sudden blurred vision

It’s normal to have some floaters, especially as you get older. They are caused by bits of debris inside your eyeball, casting a shadow onto your retina. However, if you’re seeing floaters for the first time or suddenly have lots of new floaters, it may be a symptom of retinal detachment.³

If part of your retina has detached, you’ll probably see a dark shadow across part of your field of vision, corresponding to the part of the retina that’s not working. If the shadow is moving or getting bigger, that suggests that more of your retina is coming loose and the problem is getting worse.³

If you have these symptoms, you should speak to a doctor or optometrist straight away, as you may need surgery urgently.

Retinal detachment causes and types

Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment

If you have a retinal tear or hole, the jelly-like vitreous fluid in your eye can get behind your retina, through the tear. It can then push your retina away from the back of your eye, detaching it. This is called rhegmatogenous retinal detachment.⁴

Sometimes, as you get older, your vitreous fluid can shrink and come away from your retina. This is called posterior vitreous detachment, or PVD. PVD often happens naturally as you get older and is usually nothing to worry about. However, sometimes PVD can lead to a retinal tear or hole as the fluid pulls away from the retina. This can lead to retinal detachment, as the vitreous fluid can leak between the layers of the retina and separate them.³

PVD is more likely to lead to retinal detachment if you’re short-sighted, if you or other people in your family have had retinal detachment before, or if you’ve had an eye injury or eye surgery.¹

Tractional retinal detachment

Retinal detachment can also be caused by scar tissue on the retina. The scar tissue can pull on the retina, causing it to detach. This is known as tractional retinal detachment.⁴ The scar tissue can be caused by diabetic retinopathy,³ an eye infection or eye disease.⁴

Exudative retinal detachment

Occasionally, fluid can build up behind⁴ or between the layers of your retina, even if you don’t have a torn retina.³ The fluid then pushes onto your retina and causes it to detach. This is called exudative retinal detachment.⁴ The source of the fluid build-up may be a leak from the blood vessels in your eye.⁴ It can be caused by an injury or tumour in your eye, or age-related macular degeneration.⁴

Pigment epithelial detachment

Pigment epithelial detachment is similar to retinal detachment. However, it’s the layer of cells behind the retina which gets detached, rather than the retina itself.⁵

Retinal detachment treatment

The treatment for a detached retina is surgery. There are three main types, and they will all typically be done under local anaesthetic.

If you have a retinal tear, your doctor will repair this at the same time. The treatment for a retinal tear is cryotherapy (freezing treatment) or laser therapy which seals the tear.¹,³

Vitrectomy is the most common treatment for retinal detachment.³ It involves removing some of the vitreous jelly from the inside of your eyeball and replacing it with a bubble of gas. This stops the pulling on your retina and holds your retina in place while it heals. Over time, the gas disappears by itself.³

Back to overview

Retinal Detachment

Exudative retinal detachment

Pigment epithelial detachment

Retinal detachment treatment

Citations