The classical surgical operations for foveoschisis in high myopia are vitrectomy, artificial posterior vitreous detachment, removal of the pre-macular vitreous cortex, removal of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) and intraocular gas tamponade, with some minor variations on those basis, including no removal of the ILM or ILM peeling with preservation of the fovea area; with or without gas filling, long-term silicone oil tamponade, etc. All the procedures have achieved certain efficacy and the foveoschis can be fully or partially relieved and the visual acuity can be improved to different degrees. It is worthwhile to emphasize, the most common and serious complication of the surgery is the occurrence of full-thickness macular hole or even postoperative macular hole retinal detachment. To address the risk of such complications, a safe and effective outcome can be achieved in the majority of cases by using ILM peeling with preservation of the fovea area. For high-risk cases where the operator is concerned about intraoperative or postoperative macular hole, a long-term silicone oil tamponade without ILM removal is proposed to prevent the risk of surgery-related macular hole formation.
Objective To observe the clinical effects of pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) combined with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling and C3F8 tamponade for patients with highly myopic macular hole (HM-MH) with and without foveoschisis. MethodsA retrospective case controlled study. From January 2017 to February 2022, 23 eyes of 23 patients with highly myopic macular hole with and without foveoschisis diagnosed in the Shandong Eye Hospital were included in the study. Among them, 5 males had 5 eyes, and 18 females had 18 eyes, the age was (54.43±12.96) years old. The patients with or without foveoschisis were 12 eyes in 12 cases and 11 eyes in 11 cases. Studies were divided into two groups, depending on the presence of a concomitant myopic foveoschisis or not. The groups are high myopia macular hole with foveoschisis (group A) and high myopia macular hole without foveoschisis (group B). Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), B-scan ultrasonography, optical coherence tomography and axial length (AL) measurement were performed in all eyes. Snellen chart was used for BCVA examination, and the visual acuity was converted into logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logMAR) during statistics. The age of the two groups, sex, macular hole (MH) diameter, logMAR BCVA, AL, posterior scleral staphyloma, there was no significant difference (P＞0.05). PPV combined with ILM peeling and C3F8 filling were performed in all eyes. Follow-up was at least 3 months after the last operation. BCVA changes and MH closure were compared between the two groups after surgery. Wilcoxon test was used to compare BCVA before and after operation. Mann-whiteny U test was used to compare preoperative and postoperative BCVA between groups. ResultsAfter initial surgery, MH was closed in 17 of 23 eyes (74%, 17/23). MH was closed in 8 eyes in group A (66.7%, 8/12). Four eyes were not closed (33.3%, 4/12); MH closed in 9 eyes in group B (81.8%, 9/11). There was no significant difference between the two groups after initial operation (P＞0.05). At 1 and 3 months after surgery, the logMAR BCVA of patients in group A and group B were 1.00±0.46, 1.03±0.83 and 0.53±0.63, 0.55±0.41, respectively. Compared with before operation, there was no significant difference at 1 month (P=0.783, 0.358), but the difference was statistically significant at 3 months (P=0.012, 0.007). There was no significant difference in logMAR BCVA between group A and group B at 1 and 3 months after operation (P=0.687, 0.950). ConclusionPPV combined with ILM peeling and C3F8 tamponade can promote MH closure and improve visual acuity in most affected eyes with HM-MH with and without foveoschisis.