SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN RETINAL DETACHMENT IN NORTHERN FINLAND AND NOVOSIBIRSK

Abstract

Retinal detachments have a tendency to occur more commonly in spring and summer than in winter. Two new series are presented here, the first collected in Northern Finland at latitudes 64°–70° and the second from Novosibirsk, at a much lower latitude, 55°N, but with an equally long winter. A statistically significant seasonal variation is found in both. The highest incidence peak is seen in June in Oulu and in July in Novosibirsk, the difference between the prevalence curves was, however, not statistically significant. The Oulu series shows a statistically highly significant seasonal variation in low refractive errors but no seasonal difference in high myopia and aphakia.