LETTER


Reappraisal of Spontaneous Closure Rate of Idiopathic Full-Thickness Macular Holes



Atsushi Sugiyama, Mitsuhiro Imasawa*, Tatsuya Chiba , Hiroyuki Iijima
Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Shimokato 1110, Chuo, Yamanashi, 409-3898, Japan


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© Sugiyama et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Shimokato 1110, Chuo, Yamanashi, 409-3898, Japan; Tel: +81 552739657; Fax: +81 55273 6757; E-mail: mimasawa@yamanashi.acjp


Abstract

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 142 eyes of 138 patients with idiopathic full-thickness macular hole. Spontaneous closure of idiopathic full-thickness macular hole was observed in five eyes (3.5%) of four patients before the planned vitrectomy. In the era when surgical treatment was not available for macular hole, the rate of spontaneous closure of idiopathic full-thickness macular hole was reported as 6.2%. Among several case reports on spontaneous closure of idiopathic full-thickness macular hole based on the optical coherence tomography images only one study reported the rate of spontaneous closure as 2.7%. According to the previous reports and our results, small idiopathic full-thickness macular holes may close spontaneously in a few percent of all macular hole cases. The rate of spontaneous closure may be affected by the waiting time before vitrectomy.

Keywords:: Full-thickness macular hole, spontaneous closure, optical coherence tomography.