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Expert list · Last reviewed April 17, 2026

Best Retina and Vitreous Specialists in Oklahoma

Retina and vitreous specialists in Oklahoma who treat detachments, diabetic eye disease, and macular problems at leading hospitals.

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Oklahoma has a handful of retina and vitreous specialists whose surgical experience and published work put them at the top of the list when your vision is on the line. If you have been told you need a vitrectomy, a retinal detachment repair, or long-term care for diabetic eye disease, these are the names to know.

The retina and vitreous specialists below practice across Oklahoma City, Edmond, and Tulsa, with privileges at hospitals such as SSM Health St. Anthony, Summit Medical Center, and Ascension St. John. They handle the conditions that community eye doctors usually refer out: retinal detachments, macular holes, severe diabetic retinopathy, wet macular degeneration, and eye infections that threaten sight.

Sandeep Shah

Sandeep Shah, MD

Summit Medical Center, Llc

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Dr. Shah practices retina surgery in the Oklahoma City metro area and is affiliated with Summit Medical Center in Edmond. He sees patients for retinal detachments, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, and vitreous hemorrhage. His published research covers cellular and molecular biology, with highly cited work on stem cell reprogramming 1 3 and tumor genetics 2, reflecting a deep science background that complements his clinical work.

Ray Balyeat

Ray Balyeat, MD

Ascension St. John Broken Arrow

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Dr. Balyeat is a Tulsa retina specialist affiliated with Ascension St. John Broken Arrow. His practice focuses on both medical and surgical retina, including intravitreal injections for wet age-related macular degeneration, laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy, and surgical repair of retinal tears and detachments. For patients in northeastern Oklahoma, he is a common destination after a referral from a general ophthalmologist or optometrist.

Reagan Bradford

Reagan Bradford, M.D.

Ophthalmologist

St Mary's Regional Medical Center

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Dr. Bradford is an Oklahoma City ophthalmologist with privileges at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, OU Medical Center, and SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital in Shawnee. He has a long track record in vitreoretinal surgery and was a co-author on a classic paper on the complications of draining subretinal fluid during scleral buckling 8, which helped shape how surgeons weigh risk during retinal detachment repair. He also contributed to early large-scale work on cholesterol-lowering therapy 6 7.

Brian Phelps

Brian Phelps, MD

Vitreoretinal Surgeon, Retina Vitreous Center

Summit Medical Center

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Dr. Phelps is a vitreoretinal surgeon at the Retina Vitreous Center in Edmond, affiliated with Summit Medical Center. He performs vitrectomy for retinal detachments, macular holes, epiretinal membranes, and diabetic tractional detachments, and manages wet macular degeneration with injection therapy. He is a frequent referral target for complex posterior-segment surgery in the Oklahoma City metro.

Robert Leonard

Robert Leonard, M.D.

SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital - Oklahoma City

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Dr. Leonard is an Oklahoma City vitreoretinal surgeon with privileges at SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital, Stillwater Medical Center, and Summit Medical Center. He handles some of the higher-risk retina cases in the state, including eye infections after surgery or trauma. A 2011 study he co-authored in the journal Retina showed that early vitrectomy can improve outcomes in Bacillus cereus endophthalmitis, a fast-moving infection that can blind an eye within 24 hours 11. He has also published on macular hole surgery 12 and proliferative diabetic retinopathy 15.

Ravi Pandit

Ravi Pandit, MD, MPH

Essentia Health St. Mary's Medical Center

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Dr. Pandit is an Oklahoma City ophthalmologist with a Master of Public Health in addition to his medical training. His published work spans how electronic health records affect ophthalmology clinics 18 and long-term outcomes of radiation therapy for optic nerve sheath meningioma, a rare tumor that can compress the optic nerve and threaten vision 19. That broader view of eye care is useful for patients with overlapping conditions who need a clinician comfortable coordinating across specialties.

What to look for in a retina specialist

  • Board certification in ophthalmology plus fellowship training in vitreoretinal surgery or medical retina
  • Hospital privileges at a center that can handle emergency retinal detachment repair
  • A subspecialty focus that matches your condition, such as diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, or uveitis
  • Wait time for new-patient appointments and how quickly they see urgent referrals
  • Whether the practice accepts your insurance, including Medicare if that applies

Questions to ask before your first appointment

  • How many vitrectomies or retinal detachment repairs do you perform each year?
  • What are my options if I need surgery, and what is the recovery like?
  • If I have diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration, how often will I need follow-up and injections?
  • What signs should send me to the emergency room instead of waiting for an office visit?
  • Do you operate at a hospital or an outpatient surgery center, and which insurance plans are in network there?
  • How do you coordinate with my primary eye doctor or my diabetes care team?

The bottom line

A retina problem is one of the few eye conditions where timing matters in hours, not weeks. Start with the retina specialist closest to you on this list, confirm that they take your insurance, and ask your general eye doctor or primary care physician to send a referral with your recent imaging. If you have sudden flashes, a curtain across your vision, or a rapid drop in sight, go to an emergency room first and ask them to loop in retina on-call.

Sources

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    HMGA1: A Master Regulator of Tumor Progression in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells — PLoS ONE, 2013. DOI
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    Defective Mismatch Repair, Microsatellite Mutation Bias, and Variability in Clinical Cancer Phenotypes — Cancer Research, 2010. DOI
  3. 3.
    HMGA1 Reprograms Somatic Cells into Pluripotent Stem Cells by Inducing Stem Cell Transcriptional Networks — PLoS ONE, 2012. DOI
  4. 4.
    HMGA1 drives stem cell, inflammatory pathway, and cell cycle progression genes during lymphoid tumorigenesis — BMC Genomics, 2011. DOI
  5. 5.
    DNA structure and the Werner protein modulate human DNA polymerase delta-dependent replication dynamics within the common fragile site FRA16D — Nucleic Acids Research, 2009. DOI
  6. 6.
    Expanded Clinical Evaluation of Lovastatin (EXCEL) study results. I. Efficacy in modifying plasma lipoproteins and adverse event profile in 8245 patients with moderate hypercholesterolemia — Archives of Internal Medicine, 1991. DOI
  7. 7.
    Expanded Clinical Evaluation of Lovastatin (EXCEL) Study Results — Archives of Internal Medicine, 1991. DOI
  8. 8.
    COMPLICATIONS OF DRAINING SUBRETINAL FLUID — Retina, 1984. DOI
  9. 9.
    Expanded clinical evaluation of lovastatin (EXCEL) study results: IV. Additional perspectives on the tolerability of lovastatin — The American Journal of Medicine, 1991. DOI
  10. 10.
    Expanded clinical evaluation of lovastatin (EXCEL) study results: Two-year efficacy and safety follow-up — The American Journal of Cardiology, 1994. DOI
  11. 11.
    EFFICACY OF VITRECTOMY IN IMPROVING THE OUTCOME OF BACILLUS CEREUS ENDOPHTHALMITIS — Retina, 2011. DOI
  12. 12.
    Visual Acuity and Macular Hole Size After Unsuccessful Macular Hole Closure — American Journal of Ophthalmology, 1997. DOI
  13. 13.
    Using SFOC to fly the Magellan Venus mapping mission — NASA Technical Reports Server (NASA), 1993.
  14. 14.
    Spacecraft operations automation: Automatic alarm notification and web telemetry display — Acta Astronautica, 1999. DOI
  15. 15.
    Intravitreal Aflibercept as a Surgical Adjuvant in Severe Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy — Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 2014.
  16. 16.
    Reverse shoulder arthroplasty in 41 patients with cuff tear arthropathy with a mean follow-up period of 5 years — Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 2014. DOI
  17. 17.
    Cementless surface replacement arthroplasty of the shoulder for osteoarthritis: results of fifty Mark III Copeland prosthesis from an independent center with four-year mean follow-up — Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, 2012. DOI
  18. 18.
    The Impact of an Electronic Health Record Transition on a Glaucoma Subspecialty Practice — Ophthalmology, 2013. DOI
  19. 19.
    Long-term efficacy of fractionated conformal radiotherapy for the management of primary optic nerve sheath meningioma — British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2018. DOI
  20. 20.
    Symptomatic coracoclavicular joint: incidence, clinical significance and available management options — International Orthopaedics, 2011. DOI

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