Spontaneous posterior vitreous detachment: A glance at the current literature

Figure 1 Posterior vitreous detachment. A: The vitreous humor in a normal young healthy eye is transparent and colorless; B: Age-related vitreous degeneration tends to starts with liquefaction, forming pockets of lacunae; C: Isolated or confluent opacities, known as floaters or myodesopsia, may appear; D: Vitreous liquefaction in conjunction with weakening of vitreoretinal adherence leads to posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). Floaters and a Weiss ring can increase symptomatic myodesopsia; E: The collapsing vitreous during PVD separates from the retina; F: PVD can be complicated by retinal detachment if the posterior cortex of the vitreous remains adherent to the retina during PVD.

Figure 2 Different phases of posterior vitreous detachment visualized by optical coherence tomography macula scans. A-D: Various stages of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) can be seen in focal perifoveal sectors (A-C) and around the optic nerve head (D); E: Complete PVD is seen when a crumpled translucent membrane appears floating in mid vitreous; F-J: Results of abnormal PVD caused by vitreoretinal adherence and traction can lead to macular pucker (F and G) and macular lamellar holes (H-J).