to describe a patient with intrachoroidal cavitation in the normal eye that caused self - limiting recurrent macular detachment and retinoschisis . an 80-year - old female patient with intrachoroidal cavitation in the normal eye presented with macular detachment and retinoschisis after cataract surgery . one year after cataract surgery , the patient presented with macular detachment and retinoschisis in the same eye again . this case suggests that similar cases of cystoid macular edema after cataract surgery can occur , and that intrachoroidal cavitation is observed not only in eyes with pathologic myopia but also in normal eyes with peripapillary atrophy ; intrachoroidal cavitation can cause macular detachment and retinoschisis . macular detachment and retinoschisis are often associated with x - linked retinoschisis , pit - macular syndrome and coloboma [ 13 ] . however , recent studies have reported other causes of macular detachment and retinoschisis [ 47 ] . intrachoroidal cavitations are often observed in pathologic myopia , but not in normal eyes , and can result in retinoschisis and macular serous detachment [ 5 , 8 ] . other studies have shown peripapillary retinoschisis in glaucomatous eyes [ 9 , 10 ] , which resolved without treatment in some cases . here , we present a patient with intrachoroidal cavitation in the normal eye , with peripapillary atrophy ( ppa ) , that caused self - limiting recurrent macular detachment and retinoschisis . an 80-year - old woman presented with visual loss in her right eye to the sensho - kai eye institute . her best - corrected visual acuity measured 20/100 od and 20/16 os . in the right eye , a grade 2 nuclear cataract based on the emery scale was observed with an axial length of 23.80 mm and a refractive error of  1.0 diopters . the intraocular pressure measured 15 mm hg od and 14 mm hg os . no significant changes were observed in other parts of her eyes except small temporal conus . macular serous detachment and cysts were observed using rtvue-100 fourier - domain optical coherence tomography ( rtvue - oct ; optovue inc . , although rtvue - oct showed prominent serous detachment and cysts , fluorescent angiography showed slight pooling in the cystic space and no robust leakage comparable to configuration obtained by rtvue - oct ( fig . the eye was treated as cystoid macular edema with intravitreal bevacizumab ( 1.25 mg ) 2 months after surgery . the patient presented with decreased vision and central scotoma in her right eye to kyoto medical center . rs-3000 spectral - domain oct examination ( sd - oct ; nidek co. ltd . , tokyo , japan ) showed macular detachment and retinoschisis extending to ppa ( fig . intrachoroidal cavitations connecting to the cystic space were observed adjacent to the disc ( fig . the connection between the intrachoroidal cavitation and cystic space appeared as breakage of elschnig 's collagenous limiting tissue , which connects the choroid to the optic disc . since the patient refused further examinations , such as fluorescent angiography , sd - oct was used to monitor the condition monthly . serous retinal detachment and retinoschisis gradually absorbed , and was almost fully absorbed 4 months after onset ( fig . the left eye also showed intrachoroidal cavitation ; however , no incidence of retinoschisis or retinal detachment has been noted ( fig . no coloboma or optic disc pit was observed on ophthalmoscopy , but some ppa was found in the patient 's eyes . in her right eye , a yellow - orange lesion was also found that was reported as peripapillary detachment in pathologic myopia ( fig . 2 g ) . the hyporeflective space observed with sd - oct suggested the presence of fluid was not in large blood vessels but in the space of the intrachoroidal cavitation because no corresponding large vessels were visible in the ppa- area . the first incidence was resolved within 9 months with intravitreal bevacizumab , whereas the second incidence was resolved without treatment . this is similar to irvine - gass syndrome that is characterized by cystoid macular edema following cataract surgery . however , fluorescent angiography did not show the robust leakage associated with serous detachment and retinoschisis , suggesting another source of fluid like pit - macular syndrome could exist . retinoschisis appeared to extend to the disc , unlike that observed in common cystoid macular edema . recent studies have reported that peripapillary retinoschisis can be seen in glaucomatous eyes [ 9 , 10 ] and resolved without treatment . in our case , however , macular detachment and retinoschisis occurred immediately after cataract surgery , and may have therefore caused the fluctuation of intraocular pressure . the period of self - resolution of the second incidence was even shorter than that of the first . we have encouraged the patient to follow up periodically to assess any changes . although previous studies on peripapillary detachment in pathologic myopia showed small pit formation connecting the cystic space and vitreous , no such pit formation was observed in our case on thorough observation using sd - oct . the subretinal fluid in other cases may have been derived from the vitreous ; however , the fluid in our case may have been derived from intrachoroidal cavitation or spinal fluid . since there was no connection between vitreous and macular detachment , such a condition may facilitate self - resolution . previous studies have reported intrachoroidal cavitation or peripapillary detachment in pathologic myopia but not in normal eyes [ 47 ] . here , we reported a case of intrachoroidal cavitation in an eye with normal length and having ppa , resulting in self - limited recurrent macular detachment and retinoschisis . our case suggests that similar cases of cystoid macular edemas after cataract surgery exist , and that intrachoroidal cavitation is observed not only in pathologic myopia but also in normal eyes with ppa ; intrachoroidal cavitation can cause macular detachment and retinoschisis . in cases of cystoid edema following cataract surgery , we should carefully observe not only the macular area but also the peripapillary area .