How Do I Figure Out Whether Or Not My Patient Has a Posterior Vitreous Detachment? Does There Have to Be a Weiss Ring to Make the Diagnosis?

Posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is a common age-related event that may be associated with multiple vision-threatening retinal conditions, including retinal break, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD), vitreomacular interface disorders, proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) in persons with diabetes, and others. 1 Interestingly, this common and important finding lacks a clinically validated diagnostic endpoint. The Weiss ring (Figure 14-1) traditionally has been considered a specific sign of a completed PVD, in the sense that a patient with an ophthalmoscopically visible Weiss ring is thought to have a PVD. ².