title: Idiopathic macular hole vitrectomy without postoperative face-down positioning.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy of vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling and SF(6) gas tamponade for macular holes without face-down positioning.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one eyes of 21 consecutive patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy with indocyanine green-assisted ILM peeling and 20% SF(6) gas tamponade without face-down positioning were included in this study. Biomicroscopy and optical coherence tomography were used to assess macular hole closure. Pre- and postoperative visual acuities (VAs) were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 21 eyes, five (23.8%) had stage 2, 11 (52.4%) stage 3, and five (23.8%) stage 4 macular holes. Mean macular hole size was 0.35 disc diameters. The macular holes had been present for an average of 2.3 months. Twenty eyes (95.2%) were phakic, and one (4.8%) was pseudophakic. Nineteen of the 21 holes (90.5%) initially closed. The final closure rate was 100%, and no eyes showed reopening. Preoperative mean VA (logMAR) was 0.65, and mean VA had significantly improved to 0.46 at 1 month and to 0.42 at 3 months after surgery (P < 0.0001, repeated measures analysis of variance).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vitrectomy with ILM peeling and SF(6) gas tamponade for macular holes without face-down positioning achieved favorable anatomical and functional results.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Ophthalmology, Toho University School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. fyagi@med.toho-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Fumihiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yagi
authors.forename: Yukihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: Goji
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tomita
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007208:Indocyanine Green; D008297:Male; D033401:Microscopy, Acoustic; D008875:Middle Aged; D011182:Postoperative Care; D016684:Prone Position; D012167:Retinal Perforations / Q000145:classification / Q000601:surgery*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013459:Sulfur Hexafluoride / Q000008:administration & dosage; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014821:Vitrectomy / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007208:Indocyanine Green; D013459:Sulfur Hexafluoride