Clinical profile and management outcomes of traumatic submacular hemorrhage

To evaluate the anatomical and functional outcome of patients with traumatic submacular hemorrhage (SMH).

A retrospective, interventional case series of patients presenting between January 2016 and April 2018 was carried out at 4 tertiary eye care centers of India. Medical records of the patients with a history of blunt trauma and SMH were retrospectively reviewed. The intervention done was any one of the following: pneumatic displacement with 0.3 ml of intravitreal gas [100% perfluoropropane (C3F8) gas], pneumatic displacement with intravitreal 0.3 ml of 100% C3F8 gas combined with 100 μg/0.1 ml of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-tpa), pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with subretinal r-tpa and gas tamponade. The primary outcome measures included change in visual and anatomical status.

Twenty eyes of 20 patients with blunt trauma were analyzed. Thirteen patients had small size SMH, 5 patients had medium size SMH, and 2 patients had massive size SMH. Sixteen patients had a favorable functional outcome, and eighteen patients had favorable anatomical outcome. The size and duration of post-traumatic SMH did not significantly affect the anatomical (P = 0.123) or functional (P = 0.293) outcome in our study. The patients who presented with initial visual acuity of 6/60 or better showed better functional outcome, which was statistically significant (P = 0.007).

Minimally non-invasive procedure including intravitreal r-tpa and gas appear to be effective in the displacement of post-traumatic SMH.