Akihiro Kakehashi, Mikiko Takezawa, Jun Akiba

Diagnosing a posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is important for predicting the prognosis and determining the indication for vitreoretinal surgery in many vitreoretinal diseases. This article presents both classifications of a PVD by slit-lamp biomicroscopy and of a shallow PVD by optical coherence tomography (OCT). By biomicroscopy, the vitreous condition is determined based on the presence or absence of a PVD. The PVD then is classified as either a complete posterior vitreous detachment (C-PVD) or a partial posterior vitreous detachment (P-PVD). A C-PVD is further divided into a C-PVD with collapse and a C-PVD without collapse, while a P-PVD is divided into a P-PVD with shrinkage of the posterior hyaloid membrane (P-PVD with shrinkage) and a P-PVD without shrinkage of the posterior hyaloid membrane (P-PVD without shrinkage). A P-PVD without shrinkage has a subtype characterized by vitreous gel attachment through the premacular hole in a posterior hyaloid membrane to the macula (P-PVD without shrinkage [M]). By OCT, a shallow PVD is classified as the absence of a shallow PVD or as a shallow PVD. A shallow PVD is then subclassified as a shallow PVD without shrinkage of the posterior vitreous cortex, a shallow PVD with shrinkage of the posterior vitreous cortex, and a peripheral shallow PVD. A shallow PVD without shrinkage of the posterior vitreous cortex has two subtypes: an age-related shallow PVD and a perifoveal PVD associated with a macular hole.