[A macular hole in the eye of a young patient with retinitis pigmentosa].

Purpose: To describe the histological and cytological findings in the epiretinal membrane around a macular hole.

Case: A 24-year-old male patient with retinitis pigmentosa had had night blindness since childhood. A macular hole(Stage 2) in his left eye was noted when he was 18 years old. He visited our department when he was 22 years old. The visual acuity on the left was 0.5 at the first examination and two years later it was 0.2 with enlargement of the macular hole. Pars plana vitrectomy was applied, and we removed the thick yellow epiretinal membrane around the hole. The macular hole was closed, and the visual acuity improved to 0.7. The removed membrane contained many cells including macrophages, Müller cells, glial cells, and fibroblasts. There were many granules that appeared to be xantophyll outside the cell bodies.

Conclusion: The components of the membrane suggest that the macular hole was caused by vitreous degeneration due to retinitis pigmentosa.