Cystic retinal tufts and their relationship to retinal detachment.

Cystic retinal tuft, a lesion of the peripheral retina that has been described histologically, is herein described clinically and illustrated by fundus photographs. It is a congenital developmental vitreoretinal abnormality associated with firm vitreoretinal adhesions and can lead to acute tractional retinal tears at the time of an acute posterior vitreous detachment. It has been reported to be present in 5% of autopsy cases. In a consecutive series of 200 retinal detachment cases, 6.5% seemed to be causally related to cystic retinal tufts. The risk of a cystic retinal tuft leading to retinal detachment was computed to be less than 1% (range, 0.18% to 0.28%). Prophylactic treatment of cystic retinal tufts is therefore not advised.