Spontaneous Closure of a Full-Thickness Traumatic Macular Hole in a Paediatric Patient

A macular hole is a defect of the neurosensory retina at the fovea. Post-traumatic holes can occur immediately after blunt trauma, causing severe non-penetrating retinal contusion or after sudden detachment of the vitreous from the retina. Post-traumatic macular holes can close spontaneously or may require vitreoretinal surgery. This paper aims to present the case of an 11-year-old boy with a macular hole following a ball injury. The child reported deterioration of visual acuity. Ophthalmic examination, ocular ultrasound, optical coherence tomography (OCT), perimetry, and a pattern visual evoked potential (VEP) test were performed. On the day of injury, the visual acuity of the right eye was 0.04 and intraocular pressure was 28 mmHg; the eyelid skin was reddened, and superficial conjunctival injection was observed. A fundus examination revealed oedema, pre-retinal haemorrhages, and a macular hole; peripheral retinal oedema in the superior temporal quadrant with pre-retinal haemorrhages was also seen. At the follow-up appointment scheduled 5 months following hospital discharge, visual acuity of the right eye was 0.3 and intraocular pressure was 20 mmHg. Follow-up OCT images of the OD macula were comparable to the findings obtained on the day of hospital discharge, i.e., 10 days after blunt trauma to the right eye. The left-eye OCT did not reveal any abnormalities.