To report a case of retinal detachment surgery in a patient with oculocutaneous albinism.

A 44-year-old man visited our clinic complaining of decreased visual acuity in his left eye. His best corrected visual acuity was hand movement in his left eye, and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment involving the macula at the superior temporal site was found. We performed pars plana vitrectomy and attempted to reattach the retina using endolaser photocoagulation; however, the laser burn was not made, and we failed to reattach the retina. At that point, we carried out cryopexy around the retinal tear, and injected silicone oil into the vitreous cavity. Ten months after surgery, his best corrected visual acuity was 0.06, and there was no recurrent retinal detachment or proliferative vitreoretinopathy.

In patients with albinism with melanin deficiency, cryopexy is more useful than laser photocoagulation for retinal detachment surgery.