Idiopathic macular hole surgery in Chinese patients: a randomised study to compare indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling with no internal limiting membrane peeling.

OBJECTIVE To compare the anatomical and visual outcomes of primary idiopathic macular hole surgery using indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling versus no internal limiting membrane peeling. DESIGN Prospective randomised controlled clinical trial. SETTING University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS Fifty-one eyes of 49 Chinese patients with primary idiopathic macular hole were studied. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomised to undergo pars plana vitrectomy with indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling (26 eyes) or surgery without internal limiting membrane peeling (25 eyes). Perfluorocarbon gas was used in all cases as internal tamponade. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Primary macular hole closure rate and best-corrected visual acuity. RESULTS The mean follow-up duration was 12 months (range, 6-23 months). Respectively to the indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling group and non-internal limiting membrane peeling group, the primary anatomical closure rate was 92.3% and 32.0% (P<0.001), whereas improvement in best-corrected visual acuity was 3.7 and 1.5 lines (P=0.002). More eyes in the first group (84.6%) had improvement of 2 or more lines of best-corrected visual acuity after surgery than in the second group (32.0%) [P<0.001]. Multivariate logistic regression showed indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling was the only significant predictor for primary closure of the macular hole (adjusted odds ratio=30.8). CONCLUSION Indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peeling in idiopathic macular hole surgery results in significantly better anatomical and visual outcomes compared with non-internal limiting membrane peeling in Chinese patients.