Idiopathic macular hole vitrectomy without postoperative face-down positioning.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling and SF(6) gas tamponade for macular holes without face-down positioning.

Methods: Twenty-one eyes of 21 consecutive patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy with indocyanine green-assisted ILM peeling and 20% SF(6) gas tamponade without face-down positioning were included in this study. Biomicroscopy and optical coherence tomography were used to assess macular hole closure. Pre- and postoperative visual acuities (VAs) were compared.

Results: Among the 21 eyes, five (23.8%) had stage 2, 11 (52.4%) stage 3, and five (23.8%) stage 4 macular holes. Mean macular hole size was 0.35 disc diameters. The macular holes had been present for an average of 2.3 months. Twenty eyes (95.2%) were phakic, and one (4.8%) was pseudophakic. Nineteen of the 21 holes (90.5%) initially closed. The final closure rate was 100%, and no eyes showed reopening. Preoperative mean VA (logMAR) was 0.65, and mean VA had significantly improved to 0.46 at 1 month and to 0.42 at 3 months after surgery (P < 0.0001, repeated measures analysis of variance).

Conclusion: Vitrectomy with ILM peeling and SF(6) gas tamponade for macular holes without face-down positioning achieved favorable anatomical and functional results.