Retinal break is the cause of primary retinal detachment, which remains a main cause for visual loss, and closure of the breaks is the principle of treatment. Currently surgical treatment can successfully reattach the retina in most cases. However, some basic questions still beset treatment of the disease, such as the cause responsible for development of retinal breaks and how to prevent it, and how the visual recovery can be satisfactory after reattachment surgery. Recent research indicates that the development of retinal breaks is associated with the process of vitreous liquefaction, posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) and abnormal vitreoretinal adhesion and traction. The retinal breaks can occur in the posterior margin of the vitreous base in the eye with complete PVD. Partial PVD may cause posterior breaks especially in cases of myopic traction maculopathy associated with schisislike thickening in the outer retina (foveoschisis) and vitreomacular traction. It is known that microstructural changes and atrophy of the macula, and epiretinal membrane formation are the reasons for poor vision after the retina is reattached. Therefore, more attention should be paid to further understand the vitreous pathology and traction mechanism, to research for methods of its clinical evaluation and strategy of prevention and treatment, and to accelerate visual recovery after reattachment surgery, in order to raise the standard of the disease treatment.