Postoperative visual acuities were retrospectively evaluated in a series of 100 pseudophakic eyes in which rhegmatogenous retinal detachments involved the macula and in which reattachment surgery was anatomically successful. Preoperative visual acuity and duration of macular detachment were related to visual outcome. Eyes in which extracapsular surgery had been followed by posterior chamber lens implantation had significantly better postoperative visual acuities than cases in which older iris-fixation intraocular lenses (IOLS) were placed after intracapsular procedures. Retinal detachments associated with posterior chamber IOLs have a relatively favorable anatomical and visual prognosis.