Spontaneous Closure of Full-Thickness Macular Holes

Abstract

Purpose: To describe retinal morphology and vision recovery after spontaneous closure of full-thickness macular hole (FTMH).

Materials and methods: Retrospective, observational study. From a database containing 750 FTMH, we included 23 cases. All patients had a complete ophthalmic examination. Swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography was performed.

Results: Prior to spontaneous closure in 11 women and 12 men (mean age 67 years), the mean minimum FTMH diameter was 201 μm, and mean base FTMH diameter was 638 μm. Visual acuity improved from 0.29 Snellen to 0.47 Snellen (p = 0.001) after 6 months and showed no further improvement. Spontaneous closure of FTMH was associated with vitreous detachment in less than half of the cases. Irregularities in the deep vascular layer and hyporeflective areas in the choriocapillaris were noted.

Discussion: Equal sex distribution of spontaneous closures (1:1) differs from the high prevalence of females seen in the literature. Complete visual recovery is uncommon in cases of spontaneous closure of FTMH. It might be explained by prolonged defects of the choriocapillaris layer. These findings, along with the evolution of the various morphologies reported in the study, could possibly suggest that delaying vitrectomy while hoping for spontaneous closure might not be justified.

Keywords: Macular hole; Swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography.