Artificial intelligence using deep learning to predict the anatomical outcome of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment surgery: a pilot study

Purpose: To develop and evaluate an automated deep learning model to predict the anatomical outcome of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) surgery.

Methods: Six thousand six hundred and sixty-one digital images of RRD treated by vitrectomy and internal tamponade were collected from the British and Eire Association of Vitreoretinal Surgeons database. Each image was classified as a primary surgical success or a primary surgical failure. The synthetic minority over-sampling technique was used to address class imbalance. We adopted the state-of-the-art deep convolutional neural network architecture Inception v3 to train, validate, and test deep learning models to predict the anatomical outcome of RRD surgery. The area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity for predicting the outcome of RRD surgery was calculated for the best predictive deep learning model.

Results: The deep learning model was able to predict the anatomical outcome of RRD surgery with an AUC of 0.94, with a corresponding sensitivity of 73.3% and a specificity of 96%.

Conclusion: A deep learning model is capable of accurately predicting the anatomical outcome of RRD surgery. This fully automated model has potential application in surgical care of patients with RRD.