Observations concerning patients with suspected impending macular holes

Between September 1987 and April 1989, 18 patients (21 eyes) with suspected impending Stage 1 macular holes were referred to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Only one patient had a Stage 1 hole. The others had an aborted stage of macular hole formation (eight eyes), Stage 2 holes (four eyes), a Stage 3 hole (one eye), or other lesions unrelated to hole formation. We believed that most of the apparently incorrect referring diagnoses were the product of incorrect interpretation of the biomicroscopic and fluorescein angiographic findings, and were not caused by changes occurring before our examination.