Optimizing Surgical Management for Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment in Eyes with Active Retinoblastoma: A Safety-Driven Approach

Introduction: Intraocular surgeries are conventionally contraindicated for patients with active retinoblastoma (Rb) due to the potential risk of tumor dissemination. However, surgery is occasionally necessary to preserve vision in patients with a single eye when the eye is complicated by rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD). Objective: This study aims to evaluate the outcomes of surgical repair for RRD in pediatric patients with active Rb utilizing a non-drainage scleral buckling approach. Results: This cohort included six eyes from six patients who harbored active Rb and presented with RRD; one had a concurrent tractional component. All eyes (100%) had active intraocular Rb and were undergoing active therapy (systemic chemotherapy, cryotherapy, and thermal laser therapy) when RRD developed. RRD consistently manifested at the site of recent cryotherapy in all cases. RRD repair in the affected eyes was performed by scleral buckling without subretinal fluid drainage. Five of the six eyes (83%) achieved complete retinal reattachment. One eye (17%) with a tractional component exhibited partial reattachment and was eventually enucleated due to persistent active disease. At a median follow-up of 15 months (range 12-180 months) after scleral buckling, all five eyes had persistent retinal attachment, and no case developed orbital or distant metastasis. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that nondrainage scleral buckling is an effective and safe method for the surgical repair of RRD in eyes harboring active Rb, as most cases achieved persistent complete retinal reattachment without the risk of tumor spread.

Segmental Scleral Buckle Surgical Technique for Repair of a Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment in Retinoblastoma: A Case and Review of the Literature

Purpose

The aim of this study was to describe the surgical repair of a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) with a posterior break in a child with retinoblastoma (RB).

Methods

Retrospective case report and review of the English language literature. Retrospective review of an 11-month-old male with bilateral retinoblastoma who developed a RRD with a posterior retinal break in his better-seeing eye after treatment with cryotherapy. A review of all published cases to date of RRD in patients with RB is presented.

Results

The patient underwent a posterior segmental scleral buckle without subretinal fluid drainage with successful reattachment of the retina and no extraocular extension of RB.

Conclusions

RRDs in RB patients may be successfully repaired with anatomic success and no extraocular tumor extension. Even for patients with a posterior break, a segmental scleral buckle without drainage of subretinal fluid is a viable option and long-term excellent vision is a possible outcome.

Conservative management of retinoblastoma: Challenging orthodoxy without compromising the state of metastatic grace. "Alive, with good vision and no comorbidity"

Retinoblastoma is lethal by metastasis if left untreated, so the primary goal of therapy is to preserve life, with ocular survival, visual preservation and quality of life as secondary aims. Historically, enucleation was the first successful therapeutic approach to decrease mortality, followed over 100 years ago by the first eye salvage attempts with radiotherapy. This led to the empiric delineation of a window for conservative management subject to a "state of metastatic grace" never to be violated. Over the last two decades, conservative management of retinoblastoma witnessed an impressive acceleration of improvements, culminating in two major paradigm shifts in therapeutic strategy. Firstly, the introduction of systemic chemotherapy and focal treatments in the late 1990s enabled radiotherapy to be progressively abandoned. Around 10 years later, the advent of chemotherapy in situ, with the capitalization of new routes of targeted drug delivery, namely intra-arterial, intravitreal and now intracameral injections, allowed significant increase in eye preservation rate, definitive eradication of radiotherapy and reduction of systemic chemotherapy. Here we intend to review the relevant knowledge susceptible to improve the conservative management of retinoblastoma in compliance with the "state of metastatic grace", with particular attention to (i) reviewing how new imaging modalities impact the frontiers of conservative management, (ii) dissecting retinoblastoma genesis, growth patterns, and intraocular routes of tumor propagation, (iii) assessing major therapeutic changes and trends, (iv) proposing a classification of relapsing retinoblastoma, (v) examining treatable/preventable disease-related or treatment-induced complications, and (vi) appraising new therapeutic targets and concepts, as well as liquid biopsy potentiality.

Outcomes of cataract surgery following radiation treatment for retinoblastoma

PURPOSE

To report the outcomes after cataract extraction in eyes previously treated for retinoblastoma.

METHODS

We reviewed the medical records of consecutive patients treated with cataract extraction at our institution for radiation-induced cataract following retinoblastoma treatment between 1992 and 2007.

RESULTS

Twelve eyes of 11 patients were included. The median age at diagnosis of retinoblastoma was 7.4 months. The median quiescent interval before cataract surgery was 34.6 months (range, 17-240 months). All patients underwent limbal-based extracapsular cataract extraction with scleral-tunnel wound construction. Anterior vitrectomy and posterior capsulotomy were performed in 7 eyes; an intraocular lens was placed in 10 eyes. A laser capsulotomy was subsequently performed in 5 eyes. No postoperative complications occurred. One patient underwent a pars plana vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage and proliferative retinopathy 5 years after cataract extraction. The median follow-up after surgery was 6.0 years (range, 1.1-12.3 years). Final visual acuity was between 20/20 and 20/60 in 6 eyes, between 20/70 and 20/200 in 2 eyes, and worse than 20/200 in 4 eyes. No intraocular tumor recurrences or metastases occurred. Two patients developed secondary rhabdomyosarcomas; 1 patient succumbed to the disease.

CONCLUSIONS

Limbal-based cataract extraction in our series was not associated with tumor recurrence or metastasis. The optimal quiescent interval is not known; however, no tumor recurrences occurred in our series when a minimum 17-month quiescent period was achieved. Visual improvement was noted in every patient, although several patients only experienced modest gains.