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Vitreous detachment: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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Vitreous detachment occurs in the presence of dystrophic changes. There are anterior and posterior vitreous detachments.
Anterior vitreous detachment is often observed in old age, less often - in trauma and inflammatory processes in the vascular tract. It can be detected by biomicroscopy. In this case, the space between the lens and the vitreous body seems optically empty.
Posterior vitreous detachment often occurs in myopia and often precedes retinal detachment. Posterior detachment may have different heights, shapes, and lengths, and be complete or partial. The most common variant is complete posterior vitreous detachment, which is detected along the entire posterior pole of the eye with a more or less pronounced shift toward the center. In these cases, the vitreous detachs from the optic disc, and biomicroscopy and ophthalmoscopy reveal a gray oval ring in front of the optic disc, with the subvitreal space filled with fluid. Partial detachment is less common and is either temporary or gradually increases and becomes complete.
The most severe manifestation of the dystrophic process in the vitreous body is considered to be its wrinkling (reduction in volume), often detected in chronic inflammatory processes in the retina and choroid, after penetrating eye wounds, as well as traumatic intraocular surgeries accompanied by prolapse of the vitreous body.
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