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Evolution and visual outcomes of outer foveolar lucency after surgery for large idiopathic macular hole

  • Retinal Disorders
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To explore the evolution of outer foveolar lucency (OFL) after vitrectomy and the correlation between OFL and visual acuity (VA) outcome in eyes with large idiopathic macular hole (IMH).

Methods

In this retrospective study, 244 eyes of 233 subjects with large IMH (diameter > 400 μm), who underwent vitrectomy, were included. Preoperative clinical data, postoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) images, and VA at 1-, 4-, and 10-month visits were documented. The prevalence, incidence, and width of OFL and their correlation with postoperative VA were analyzed.

Results

The prevalence of OFL was 10.4% (24/231) at 1 month and significantly increased to 30.4% (55/181) at 4 months (P < 0.001) and 34.2% (25/73) at 10 months (P < 0.001). The incidence was 26.1% (40/153) and 22.0% (9/41) at 4 and 10 months, respectively. OFL appeared at 1 month while disappeared at 4 or 10 months in 8 eyes (50.0%). The presence of OFL at 1 month was negatively associated with IMH diameter (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.06; P = 0.02). Eyes with OFL at 4 months had better VA at their 4-month visit than eyes without OFL (P = 0.02). Eyes with early-developed OFLs had better VA at 10 months than those with later-developed ones (P = 0.02). Width of OFL was not associated with postoperative VA at any point.

Conclusions

OFL is not rare in eyes with large IMH after surgery. It can occur gradually and remain during the 10-month follow-up. The presence of OFL appears to have no negative impact on the postoperative VA and it may represent the remodeling of foveal photoreceptors.

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Availability of data and material

All data relevant to the study are included in the article. The deidentified participant data are in the team’s database, which is available only from the corresponding author. For reusing, please contact WL (wuliubj@sina.com) for permission.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jessica Mahlum from Oregon Health Science University for her kind help editing the language within this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Tongren Eye Center, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University, No 1, Dongjiaominxiang Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing, 100730, China

    Biying Qi, Yanping Yu, Zengyi Wang, Jing Wang, Lingzi Liu & Wu Liu

  2. Beijing Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Key Laboratory, Beijing, China

    Biying Qi, Yanping Yu, Zengyi Wang, Jing Wang, Lingzi Liu & Wu Liu

  3. Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA

    Qisheng You

Authors
  1. Biying Qi
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  2. Yanping Yu
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  6. Lingzi Liu
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  7. Wu Liu
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Contributions

Conceptualization and methodology: Biying Qi, Yanping Yu, and Wu Liu. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis: Biying Qi. Writing—original draft preparation: Biying Qi. Writing—review and editing: Yanping Yu, Wu Liu, Qisheng You, and Biying Qi. Support of statistical techniques: Zengyi Wang, Jing Wang, and Lingzi Liu. Supervision and surgical support: Wu Liu. Approval of manuscript: all authors.

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Correspondence to Wu Liu.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by the ethical review committee of Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

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Patients signed informed consent regarding publishing their data and photographs.

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This article is part of a topical collection on Macular Holes.

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Qi, B., Yu, Y., You, Q. et al. Evolution and visual outcomes of outer foveolar lucency after surgery for large idiopathic macular hole. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 258, 2117–2124 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04814-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04814-5

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