The Effect of Vitrectomy for the Treatment of Macular Hole Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy

Park, Sung Pyo; Chung, Hum; Yu, Hyeong Gon

Abstract

PURPOSE: To describe the effect of vitrectomy for the treatment of macular holes associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
METHODS
Fourteen eyes of 14 patients were chosen among those who had undergone vitrectomy at the Seoul National University Hospital during the last 5 years, due to the presence of a macular hole associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. A retrospective study was performed to analyze the fundus findings, pre- and post-operative visual acuity, hole closure status and associated complications. In addition, the study analyzed the results of removing the internal limiting membrane.
RESULTS
Twelve out of 14 eyes had proliferative tractional membrane in the macular area. A macular hole with full-thickness was found in 14 eyes (eight eyes before the operation and six eyes during the operation), and final observation showed full hole closure in all 14 eyes. However, eight of the 14 eyes (57.1%) had an improved visual acuity and only two (14.3%) showed an improvement of more than two lines. Seven (77.8%) out of nine eyes that underwent removal of the internal limiting membrane showed visual improvement; no side effects were found in these cases.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study, we observed that the anatomical features of vitrectomy resulted in the successful treatment of macular holes associated with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. However, limitations still exist in the procedure's functional effectiveness for improving visual acuity.