The past 25 years of surgery.

The past 25 years have seen an explosion in interest and progress in the diagnosis and treatment of vitreoretinal diseases, especially retinal detachments. This progress has paid high dividends in the prevention of blindness and the clinical care of patients. The major advances during this period are the development of a binocular stereoscopic indirect ophthalmoscope combined with scleral depression, the introduction of a scleral buckling procedure to close retinal breaks, the development of instruments capable of producing controlled focal irritation in the ocular fundus, and the advent of direct surgical removal of the vitreous.