Macular hole surgery with or without indocyanine green stained internal limiting membrane peeling.

Background: To compare the anatomical and visual outcome in primary idiopathic macular hole surgery with or without indocyanine green (ICG) stained internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling.

Methods: The medical records of the last 40 consecutive eyes receiving primary idiopathic macular hole surgery with gas as internal tamponade performed by a single surgeon were retrospectively reviewed and analysed. All eyes had a follow-up period of at least 6 months. In the initial 22 consecutive eyes, no ILM peeling was performed (non-ILM peeling group). The subsequent 18 eyes underwent surgery with ICG-stained ILM peeling (ILM peeling group).

Results: The primary anatomical closure rates were 88.9% and 59.1% in the ILM peeling group and non-ILM peeling group, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.038). Improvement in visual acuity was more marked in the ILM peeling group than in the non-ILM peeling group, with a mean improvement of 3.6 and 1.3 lines, respectively (two-tailed t-test, P = 0.036). There were significantly more cases with improvement of two or more lines of visual acuity after surgery, with 66.7% in the ILM peeling group and 31.8% non-ILM peeling group (Chi-square test P = 0.028). However, there was no significant difference in the final postoperative logMAR best-corrected visual acuity between the two groups (two-tailed t-test, P = 0.073).

Conclusions: Based on this study, ICG-stained ILM peeling seems to improve the anatomical and visual outcome in primary idiopathic macular hole surgery. Further studies in this aspect are warranted.