The history and future perspective of posterior scleral reinforcement

Posterior sclera reinforcement (PSR) has been developed for more than 60 years. Unfortunately, its clinical efficacy hasn't gained wide recognition even recently. The literatures about treating high myopia with PSR were searched in Pubmed, CNKI and VIP from 1965/01/01 to 2015/11/30 with the key words ″scleroplasty″, ″scleral reinforcement″ and ″high myopia″, among which the language categories, the number of the literatures in different time periods, the operation style, reinforcement materials and efficacy of PSR were analyzed. PSR was mainly carried out in Russia, Eastern Europe and China. The numbers of articles published on PSR gradually increased from the 1970 s, to reach the top in the mid of 1980 s, and gradually decreased after that time in Non-Chinese literatures. The first Chinese paper reported about PSR was published in the mid of 1980 s, the numbers of publication increased gradually. There is steady incrase in publication of PSR over last 15 years. The efficacy of PSR is still under controversial since too many operation styles and materials were chosen and lack of universal standards, most of which can't meet the mechanical requirements of reinforcement. The number of Chinese literatures began to rebound in the new century. With the development of the new surgical techniques by our group and innovation of new reinforcement materials, PSR could be expected to gain the popularity in the new century for the treatment of retinopathy in highly myopic patients again. Key words: Myopia, degenerative; Posterior scleral reinforcement; Efficacy evaluation