Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To study the characteristics and prognosis of macular hole eyes whose fellow eyes also have macular holes. Methods: The patient charts of 25 patients who had macular holes in both eyes were reviewed and the data, including hole stage, presence of epiretinal membrane (ERM), surgical failure or success, hole edge approximation at postal surgical one year, were analyzed. All patients had same surgeon and same surgical technique including standard three–port trans pars plana vitrectomy, removal of all cortical vitreous, and C3F8 internal gas tamponade with face–down position. Only the first surgery eye on each patient was included in this study. Results: Out of 25 patient eyes, 6 eyes had stage 2 holes and the other 19 eyes had stage 3/4 holes. 33% of stage 2 holes had ERM and 74% of stage 3/4 holes had ERM at the baseline. The initial surgical success rate for stage 2 holes was 67% and 61% for the stage 3/4 holes. The hole re–opening developed between 3 and 12 months in three cases in this group of patients, which comprise a 12% hole re–opening. At post surgical one year, out of 22 surgically sealed macular holes 12 showed grade 3 hole edge approximation with poor visual acuity, lower than 20/100. Conclusions: It seems that there is a higher tendency of surgical failure and poor surgical outcome associated with the eyes whose fellow eyes also present macular holes at the time. A prospective controlled study with both unilateral and bilateral macular hole cases may shed further light on this preliminary finding.
Keywords: retina • macular holes • vitreous