The Impact of Travel Distance on Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment Presentation and Outcomes

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Rhegmatogenous reti-nal detachment (RRD) requires urgent surgical in-tervention. The effect of travel distance on RRD out-comes is unclear. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 642 patients who underwent RRD re-pair at Cole Eye Institute from 2012 to 2020. Google Maps was used to calculate the travel distance in miles from the residential zip code to the present-ing and surgery location addresses. Multivariable lo-gistic and bivariate linear regressions were used to compare macula-off status and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in ETDRS letters at presentation and at 6-month follow-up, with patient travel distance di-vided into < 25 miles, 25 to 50 miles, and > 50 miles.RESULTS: Four hundred sixty-two patients were ex-amined in the final cohort. The retinal reattachment rate was 94.3% for less than 25 miles, 96.3% for 25 to 50 miles, and 95.9% for greater than 50 miles (P = 0.63). In multivariable analysis, distance to present-ing location was not associated with macula-off sta-tus (P = 0.69) or BCVA at follow-up (P = 0.27). One-way analysis of distance and time from presentation to surgery in days revealed that distance to surgical site was associated with longer time to surgery (P = 0.003). Subset analysis of patients with income less than $25,520 (n = 18) revealed greater distance to presenting and surgical location was associated with longer time to surgery (P < .0001), but was not associated with BCVA at follow-up (P = 0.53).CONCLUSIONS: This data suggests that patients who live further from the hospital achieve equivalent out-comes from RRD repair, despite delays in surgery.