AIM: To observe the clinical curative effect of scleral buckling surgery for the treatment of old retinal detachment.

METHODS: We selected 134 cases old retinal detachment patients as the objects in our hospital in recent years, all the patients was monocular retinal detachment. 66 cases of them were less than six months, 68 cases of them were more than six months, they were given scleral buckling surgery and the vision rehabilitation was compared after surgery.

RESULTS: Totally 61 cases(45.5%)of the patients' postoperative visual acuity was above 0.1, it was significantly higher than before the surgery; for the patients with retinal detachment less than half a year, 90.9% visual acuity was increased, 86.4% of the surgeries was success, they were significantly higher than the patients with retinal detachment more than six months. These differences were statistically significant(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: Scleral buckling is a simple and effective method for the treatment of old retinal detachment. It can achieve higher cure rates and given the treatment earlier, the curative effect would be better.