Purpose: To investigatewhether shortening the duration of facedown positioning from 1 week to 3 days affects the anatomical success rate of macular hole surge ry. Methods: A total of 53 consecutive eyes in 50 patientswith full thicknessmac ular holes of 2-24 months’(average 10 months) duration were included in the st udy. In 20 eyes (37.7%) the hole had been present for more than 1 year. All pat ients were operated with vitrectomy, removal of the posterior hyaloid and a comp lete fluid-gas exchange. Peeling of the internal limiting membrane (ILM) was no t performed. Postoperatively, the duration of face-down positioning differed be tween two consecutive groups of patients. The first group (29 patients) was inst ructed to keep their heads face-down for 7 days, while the second group (24 pat ients)-maintained face-down positioning for only 3 days. Results: Overall, 90. 6%of the macular holes closed with one operation. The macular hole closed succe ssfully in 27 (93.1%) of the 29 eyes in the 1-week group and in 21 (87.5%) of the 24 eyes in the 3-day group (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Although the frequency of hole closure differed slightly in the two study groups, the difference was fa r from statistically significant. Thus, the results indicate that 3 days of stri ct face-downpositioning are sufficient to achieve closure of even longstanding macular holes without removal of the ILM.
展开▼
