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ICG-stained membrane peeling improves visual outcomes in macular hole study
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Peeling of the internal limiting membrane with indocyanine green staining appeared to improve anatomical and visual outcomes of macular hole surgery in a recent study.
Alvin K.H. Kwok, MD, FRCS, and colleagues in Hong Kong compared the results of surgery for primary idiopathic macular hole with and without peeling of the internal limiting membrane (ILM) stained with indocyanine green (ICG). They retrospectively analyzed 40 consecutive eyes undergoing macular hole surgery with gas tamponade performed by a single surgeon. In the first 22 eyes in the series no ILM peeling was performed (non-ILM peeling group), and in the next 18 eyes ICG-stained ILM peeling was performed (ILM peeling group). All eyes had follow-up of at least 6 months.
Marked improvement in visual acuity was seen in the ILM peeling group, with 88.9% anatomical closure. The non-ILM peeling group had 59% anatomical closure. Significantly more eyes in the ILM peeling group experienced 2 or more lines of visual acuity improvement after surgery (66.7%) than in the in the non-ILM peeling group (31.8%).
There was no significant difference in the final postoperative best corrected visual acuity between the two groups, according to the authors.
The study is published in the December 2003 issue of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology.