The Ninth Medical Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital Successfully Performed FCB Surgery, Offering a New Treatment Option for Patients with Extensive and Multiple Retinal Holes and Retinal Detachment

Preface
On February 21, 2025, the Ninth Medical Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital successfully carried out the implantation of Foldable Capsular Buckle (FCB). The team led by Professor Luo Ling successfully implanted an FCB in a patient with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment who had extensive and multiple retinal holes. The detached retina was repositioned, and the patient's visual acuity was improved. As a new treatment option for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, this surgical procedure marks a further step taken by the hospital's department of fundus diseases in the treatment of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment towards the direction of minimal invasiveness, painlessness, and rapidity.

Overview of the Illness Condition

The patient is a 65-year-old male. At the beginning of 2025, he felt that his right eye became blurred without an obvious cause. On February 11, he visited the outpatient department of the Ninth Medical Center of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital. The examination results showed that "the visual acuity of the right eye was counting fingers in front of the eye, and it could not be improved by correction; the visual acuity of the left eye was 0.4, and the corrected visual acuity was 0.5, with mild lens opacity. In the fundus examination, a horseshoe-shaped retinal hole was visible in the superotemporal area of the right eye, and a grayish-blue elevation of the retina was visible around the hole, involving the macula area. In the macular OCT examination of the right eye, there was a high detachment of the neurosensory epithelium layer in the macular area, and there was a macular hole in the left eye's macular area." The patient was diagnosed with "rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (right eye), and macular hole of the retina (left eye)" and was admitted to the hospital.

(Preoperative Examination)
 

If the patient had gone to the hospital for a timely examination when the disease occurred a month ago, perhaps retinal laser treatment could have effectively controlled the progression of the illness. However, as the illness condition worsened continuously over the past month, the range of retinal detachment became larger and larger, and the patient's visual acuity became worse and worse. Currently, the external approach treatment for the retina could no longer effectively treat the disease, and even the internal approach vitrectomy had to be adopted to reposition the retina. But this surgical method causes relatively great harm.

Combining the patient's illness condition and specific situation, Professor Luo formulated several treatment plans. The patient hoped to adopt a more minimally invasive external approach surgical treatment. After full communication with the patient and his family members, it was planned to perform an ultra-minimally invasive retinal repositioning surgery on him, namely the folding buckling balloon (FCB) retinal repositioning surgery.

Through full preparation, Professor Luo's team finally successfully performed the FCB retinal repositioning surgery on the patient. During the operation, under local anesthesia, the FCB was successfully implanted in the patient's right eye to achieve the purpose of scleral buckling. The patient did not report any special discomfort during the operation, and the operation went smoothly. After the operation, in the patient's right eye, at least seven retinal holes of different sizes from 7 o'clock to 12 o'clock in the whole temporal side were ideally sealed. The treatment effect was good, and the patient was satisfied.

(Postoperative Examination)