AIM: To investigate the influence of various factors on postoperative visual acuity after the retinal detachment(RD)surgery.

METHODS: A total of 119 cases(119 eyes)who were admitted with the first diagnosis of RD and recovered after operative treatment were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 38 cases received scleral buckling operation, and the other 81 cases received vitrectomy and retinal reattachment operation. The onset age of retinal detachment, the affected area, holes, the macular state, the level of proliferative vitreoretinopathy(PVR), visual acuity before and after operation, and retinal reattachment were studied. Chi-square test was used to analyze the differences. Spearman rank correlation was used to test the results of statistical significance.

RESULTS: After retinal reattachment, visual acuity was improved in 65 eyes(54.6%), remained unchanged in 34 eyes(28.6%), and decreased in 20 eyes(16.8%). The influences of the onset age, the duration of retinal detachment, the range of retinal detachment, the hole, the macular state, the level of proliferative vitreoretinopathy had significant influence on recovery of visual acuity(P<0.05). Using spearman rank correlation analysis, we found that the preoperative factors associated with postoperative visual acuity included in the descending order of the correlation degree: the level of PVR(r_s=-0.493, P=0.000), the range of RD(r_s=-0.476, P=0.000), the hole(r_s=-0.411, P=0.000), the macular state(r_s=-0.360, P=0.000), the duration of RD(r_s=-0.334, P=0.000), and the age of the patients(r_s=-0.241, P=0.008).

CONCLUSION: The level of PVR, the range of retinal detachment, the hole, the macular state, the time of RD and the age of patients are important factors influencing the postoperative vision recovery, with the first three being the most important.