RATES OF RECURRENT RETINAL DETACHMENT AFTER VAGINAL VERSUS CESAREAN DELIVERIES

The idea that vaginal delivery could lead to retinal detachment has no scientific support. However, there is a controversy among obstetricians/gynecologists and ophthalmologists regarding the best mode of delivery in such cases. We found no increased risk of redetachment for women who had undergone vaginal delivery compared with those who underwent cesarean section. Purpose:To evaluate the risk of a retinal redetachment in women after vaginal delivery versus cesarean delivery.Methods:Retrospective cohort analysis of patients diagnosed with retinal detachment (RD) who had later delivered in one tertiary medical center. Recurrence rates of RD were obtained from medical charts.Results:A total of 967 women with RDs were evaluated, and 66 patients met the inclusion criteria. The mean age at the time of RD was 22.64 +/- 5.81 SD years and 21.75 +/- 5.47 SD years in the vaginal delivery group and the cesarean section group, respectively. None of the patients had a history of eye surgery or traumatic eye injury before the event of RD. In all patients, the detached retina was surgically reattached. Retinal detachment was not recorded in the fellow eye during follow-up. We report four cases of redetachment after birth in four women. In our study, there was a 5% rate (n = 2) of RD after a vaginal delivery as compared with a 7.5% (n = 2) redetachment rate for patients after a cesarean delivery (P = 0.654).Conclusion:The risk of a redetachment of the retina in women is not increased after a vaginal delivery as compared with a cesarean delivery. Therefore, in our opinion, there is no ophthalmic benefit in a cesarean section for a woman with prior RD.