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Macular Hole
The macula is the most precious part of our retina because it gives us our central vison. We use our central vison for many things like reading, watching TV, driving and recognizing peoples face. A macular hole can happen spontaneously in some people causing central vision loss.
Source: America Academy of Ophthalmology
Symptoms:
At first someone may notice distortion in their vision in the eye that is affected. Later over days to months they experience loss of their central vison.
Causes:
Macular holes typically occur spontaneously from traction caused by the gel in the back of the eye. Other causes are eye injuries, inflammation, and other retinal diseases. Macular holes occur mostly in patients 60 years of age or older, and are twice as often in women.
Diagnosis:
Macular holes are easily diagnosed in our office with a careful eye exam and the use of a special test called and OCT. This is an advanced laser scanning tool that uses computers to produce magnificent images of the macula in seconds.
Treatment:
Until recently a macular hole meant you stayed legally blind in that eye. Today we are able to repair a macular hole in nearly 90% of patients. The surgical procedure is called vitrectomy. Three micro openings are used to perform this procedure. The openings are so small they generally seal themselves so very often stiches are unnecessary. After surgery the patient is required to position facedown for several days. In general, while macular hole surgery is not an emergency, the sooner the procedure is done the better the visual recover will be. We train patients who have had macular holes to monitor themselves for the relatively infrequent development of a hole in their fellow eye.
Expertise:
Dr. Gloth is a gifted retinal surgeon, have been fellowship in retinal surgery. He has special expertise in the very gentle repair of macular holes for over 10 years.