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Posterior Vitreous Detachment

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Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology
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Definition

Posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is the most frequent and most important change of the vitreous, which is defined as the separation of posterior hyaloid membrane from the internal limiting membrane (ILM). Although PVD naturally resulted from aging and usually harmless, PVD can be the provoking event for numerous vitreoretinal pathologies. It has been shown that up to 24% of symptomatic PVD gives rise to retinal complications (Yonemoto et al. 1994; Hikichi and Trempe 1994; Chuo et al. 2006). According to the existence of adhesion at the vitreoretinal interface and its sequelae, PVD can be divided into complete or partial and innocuous or anomalous PVD.

Epidemiology

Studies have shown the incidence of PVD is 66% between the ages of 66 and 86 years and 53% after 50 years (Favre and Goldmann 1956). The average age of onset of PVD is approximately 61 years old (Yonemoto et al. 1994). In cases suffered from myopia, retinal vascular disorders, trauma, and retinitis pigmentosa,...

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References

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Correspondence to Shibo Tang .

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Tang, S., Ma, J.H., Ji, S., Fan, H. (2018). Posterior Vitreous Detachment. In: Schmidt-Erfurth, U., Kohnen, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69000-9_1046

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69000-9_1046

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68292-9

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