Original articleUltrastructure of the Vitreomacular Interface in Full-Thickness Idiopathic Macular Holes: A Consecutive Analysis of 100 Cases
Section snippets
Methods
This is a consecutive series of 218 surgical specimens obtained during vitrectomy for idiopathic macular holes. The specimens consisted of the internal limiting membrane (ILM) and epimacular tissue, and were removed from 100 eyes of 99 patients with stage III (80 eyes) and stage IV (20 eyes) idiopathic macular holes. All patients were operated by one vitreoretinal surgeon (A.K.) at the University Eye Hospital Munich. Forty-three patients underwent a combined procedure of vitrectomy and cataract
Clinical features
Sixty-seven women and 32 men were included in this series, corresponding to 60 right eyes and 40 left eyes. The average age at time of surgery was 68 years (range 52 to 87 years). There were 80 eyes with stage III macular holes and 20 eyes with stage IV macular holes. The total number of 218 specimens investigated was composed of 157 specimens from patients with stage III macular holes and 61 specimens from patients with stage IV macular holes.
Preoperatively, eight eyes had undergone
Discussion
We examined the vitreoretinal interface in patients with idiopathic macular holes by analyzing the ultrastructure of the ILM and epiretinal tissue. Our approach was based on the intraoperative assessment of the vitreomacular relationship and en-bloc removal of the vitreomacular interface.
The prevalence of epiretinal tissue in idiopathic macular holes varies in the literature. Our data revealed cellular or fibrocellular proliferation in 57 of 100 cases. In the Vitrectomy for Macular Hole Study,
Ricarda G. Schumann, MD, born in 1977, attended Medical School at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in Munich, Germany, participating in the Harvard-Munich-Alliance program. In 1999, she started laboratory research in the field of leukocyte chemotaxis and joined the research group of electromicroscopy at the University Eye Hospital Munich in 2001 where she finished her doctoral thesis on “Ultrastructural preservation of epiretinal membranes.” Since 2004, she is working as a medical
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Ricarda G. Schumann, MD, born in 1977, attended Medical School at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in Munich, Germany, participating in the Harvard-Munich-Alliance program. In 1999, she started laboratory research in the field of leukocyte chemotaxis and joined the research group of electromicroscopy at the University Eye Hospital Munich in 2001 where she finished her doctoral thesis on “Ultrastructural preservation of epiretinal membranes.” Since 2004, she is working as a medical doctor at the University Eye Hospital Munich, Germany.