Morphologic Stages of Full-Thickness Macular Hole on Spectral-Domain OCT

Objective

To describe the sequential morphological changes of the outer retina after full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) formation utilizing a novel, objective staging system based on OCT, and to determine its association with baseline visual acuity, duration of symptoms, and postoperative visual acuity at 3 months.

Design

Retrospective, observational, multicenter study.

Participants

Patients with idiopathic FTMH presenting to St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada, and Retina Consultants of Texas, Houston, Texas from 2009 to 2022.

Methods

The medical charts of 1000 patients with FTMH were reviewed, and those with ≥2 preoperative spectral-domain OCTs (SD-OCTs) were analyzed. A staging system was developed by assessing outer retinal morphology on successive SD-OCT central foveal scans.

Main Outcome Measures

Sequential outer retinal morphological changes with SD-OCT over time and their association with baseline visual acuity, duration of symptoms, and postoperative functional outcomes.

Results

Fifty-two eyes of 52 patients with a mean age of 65.4 ± 8.4 years were included. Sequential outer retinal morphologic changes at the FTMH borders occurred in 4 distinct and reproducible stages: stage A, separation of the neurosensory retina from the retinal pigment epithelium with the well-defined external limiting membrane (ELM), ellipsoid zone (EZ), and interdigitation zone (4/52, 7.7%); stage B, thickening of the EZ (27/52, 52.0%); stage C, patchy (moth-eaten) photoreceptor loss (16/52, 30.7%); and stage D, severe or complete loss of inner and outer segments and bare ELM (5/52, 9.6%). When assessing the preoperative OCT scans closest to the time of surgery, over a mean follow-up period of 288.9 ± 350.4 days (range, 5–1841), 28.85% (15/52) of eyes were in stage B, 28.85% (15/52) were in stage C, and 42.3% (22/52) were in stage D. There was a statistically significant association between increasing stage at baseline and longer duration of macular hole symptoms (P = 0.032) and worse visual acuity at baseline (P < 0.001). Additionally, patients presenting with stages B and C at the time point closest to surgery had better visual acuity outcomes 3 months postoperatively than those with stage D (P = 0.04).

Conclusions

This SD-OCT staging system describes the sequential in vivo morphologic changes after FTMH formation, providing a novel imaging biomarker.

Financial Disclosure(s)

Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article.