[Treatment of retinal detachment with a macular hole using the Convers-Machemer method]

Fourteen patients with retinal detachment and macular hole were treated by pars plana vitrectomy and air-gas injection, according to the method of Gonvers and Machemer. Neither scleral buckling procedures at the posterior pole nor coagulation of the macular hole were performed. Ten patients had not previously undergone detachment surgery, and the retinas were reattached in all of them at the follow-up examination 3 months later. In 2 patients the retina subsequently redetached, 7 and 14 months after surgery. Four patients had undergone detachment surgery previously; only in one of them was the retina still reattached after 3 months. The best postoperative visual acuity was 0.2, in 3 patients.