Abstract
Purpose :
To describe a case series of persistent outer retinal defects in patients treated with macular hole surgery with gas tamponade and face down positioning.
Methods :
Retrospective case series reviewing medical records of adults undergoing pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for initial repair of stage 2 to 4 idiopathic macular holes from 2006 through 2009 at Casey Eye Institute and Devers Eye Institute. Spectral domain ocular coherence tomography in follow-up was obtained.
Results :
Of 80 eyes that underwent macular hole surgery, 11 cases (11.75%) presented with persistent outer retinal defects at least three months after surgery as evidenced by OCT. Mean age was 66.8 ± 8.2 years, 9 Female and two male. Three of 11 cases were treated with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and one week of face down positioning, while 8 were treated with perfluoropropane (C3F8) or hexafluoroethane (C2F6) and longer positioning. Mean follow up time was 34.9 months. Longer term follow up of patients (up to 9 years post operatively) revealed late closure of outer retinal defects happened in 5 of 11 cases (45.4%).
Conclusions :
Persistent postoperative outer retinal defects can present following macular hole surgery with either short term or long term tamponade or positioning. Long term follow up of such cases may reveal resolution of the defect in some cases.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.