Macular hole closure at seven years after surgery

To report a case of macular hole (MH) closure at seven years after internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling.

A 66-year-old woman developed a MH in her left eye. Pars plana vitrectomy with ILM peeling and SF6 gas injection followed by face-down position for a week slightly improved the visual acuity from 20/400 to 20/200 but did not close the MH. During subsequent three years of follow-up without any treatment, the MH did not close. Seven years after the surgery, she visited us for cataract surgery in her right eye, and the optical coherence tomography (OCT) examination coincidentally found closure of the MH in her left eye. The visual acuity of her left eye remained 20/200 despite the MH closure.

ILM peeling might indirectly contribute to the closure of MH at seven years after the surgery although the mechanism is unclear. Sharing the serial OCT images until the MH closure would help us explore the mechanisms of ILM peeling to close MH and develop rational surgery technique manipulating ILM for MH.