Trauma in Young Eyes
Although young patients have a higher incidence of eye injury than do other age groups, only in rare instances does the retina detach immediately following blunt trauma, because young vitreous has not yet undergone syneresis, or liquefaction. The vitreous, therefore, does not allow fluid movement through the retinal tears or dialyses. With time, however, the vitreous may liquefy over a tear, allowing fluid to pass through the break to detach the retina. The clinical presentation of the retinal detachment is usually delayed:
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12% of detachments are identified immediately.
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30% are identified within 1 month.
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50% are identified within 8 months.
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80% are identified within 24 months.
Traumatic retinal detachments in young patients may be shallow and often show signs of chronicity, including multiple demarcation lines, subretinal deposits, and intraretinal schisis.
When posterior vitreous separation is present or occurs later after trauma, retinal breaks are often associated with abnormal vitreoretinal attachments and may resemble nontraumatic breaks. Retinal detachments may occur acutely in these patients.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 10 - Glaucoma. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.