Classifying posterior vitreous detachment: a new way to look at the invisible

Vitreous is the largest structure within the eye, yet our knowledge of its structure, function, and role in disorders of sight is less than for any other ocular structures. This limitation in understanding arises principally from the inability to adequately visualise vitreous clinically and the lack of effective techniques for its study in the laboratory.1 Furthermore, there has been the notable absence of a systematic approach to characterising changes in this structure with aging and disease. This is strikingly apparent when one considers the lack of a useful system with which to classify the most common event befalling the corpus vitreus—posterior vitreous detachment (PVD). Similar obstacles in our understanding of proliferative vitreoretinopathy, macular holes, …