We truly appreciate the interest in our recent article. In this article we reported about the onset of some degree of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) after uneventful cataract surgery. The news value of our study was the complementary use of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for the PVD assessment. Until now, the onset of PVD after cataract surgery was assessed with biomicroscopy and ultrasound. As OCT facilitates the detection of very early stages of PVD, we found a substantially higher postoperative PVD rate than was previously reported using biomicroscopy and ultrasound only. In addition, OCT disclosed significant dynamics of the vitreoretinal interface changes in the postoperative course.

OCT essentially extended our knowledge about PVD. As Drs Yepez and Arevalo mentioned in their correspondence, anterior vitreous detachment (AVD) is another striking occurrence after cataract surgery, playing an important role in pseudophakic retinal detachment. According to Dr Yepez (Yepez JB, unpublished data, May 2010), a considerable amount of fluid passes from the anterior chamber through the zonules and consequently leads to hydrodissection of the anterior hyaloid. This mechanism can be demonstrated with magnetic resonance imaging after gadolinium-assisted phacoemulsification and with ultrasound biomicroscopy. These preliminary results substantially contribute to our understanding of the pathophysiology of the pseudophakic retinal detachment. We strongly encourage further investigation on this topic.