Case Of The Month | February 2026

Case of the Month
February 24, 2026

The Case

The Case:

The patient was a 70-year-old pseudophakic man who had blurred vision in the left eye for 6 days. His vision was 20/40+ OD and 20/200 OS. He was found to have a superior and nasal retinal detachment, which was flatted with pneumatic retinopexy. One month later, he experienced a redachment involving the temporal retina, and this was successfully treated with vitreoretinal surgery. Four years later, the visual acuity was 20/100 OS.

Of note, after surgical repair, there were many drusen outside the arcades in the right eye but not in the left eye. Why was this the case?

Answer:

Subretinal fluid due to a choroidal neovascular membrane typically causes improvement or resolution of drusen in that location. In our patient, a sub-neurosensory fluid from a retinal detachment had the same effect. The mechanism is not clear, but it appears that the fluid dissolves and/or washes away the lipid-rich drusen material.

 

Ahmed I, We DM. Drusen disappearance after retinal detachment repair. J Vitreoretin Dis 2024; 9:109-12.

Case Photos

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Answer:

Subretinal fluid due to a choroidal neovascular membrane typically causes improvement or resolution of drusen in that location. In our patient, a sub-neurosensory fluid from a retinal detachment had the same effect. The mechanism is not clear, but it appears that the fluid dissolves and/or washes away the lipid-rich drusen material.

 

Ahmed I, We DM. Drusen disappearance after retinal detachment repair. J Vitreoretin Dis 2024; 9:109-12.

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