A macular hole (MH) refers to an anatomical opening in the center of the macula, which is a complete defect in the neurosensory retina of the macular area from the internal limiting membrane (ILM) to the outer layer of photoreceptors. MH can be classified as either idiopathic (IMH) or secondary, with IMH occurring spontaneously and being unrelated to any underlying ocular disease. Secondary MH is often caused by ocular trauma, high myopia, or cystoid macular edema. Clinical manifestations of IMH include decreased visual acuity, visual distortion caused by displacement of photoreceptors, and a central scotoma caused by the macular hole. Fundus photography shows a clear, circular or elliptical, dark red hole in the macular area, with varying diameters, and a yellowish deposit resembling a vitreous membrane nodule at the base of the hole. The retina neuroepithelium can be seen to be detached around the hole. Epidemiological investigations and clinical reports suggest that the incidence of IMH is higher in women than in men, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:6, which may be related to the later occurrence of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) in women. MH can greatly reduce a patient's quality of life related to visual health. Currently, vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane peeling, intraocular filling, and postoperative prone positioning is the preferred and gold standard treatment for IMH. The initial closure rate after surgery can reach up to 90%[5–6]. Although there have been significant improvements in the anatomical closure rate of macular holes with the continuous exploration and improvement of surgical techniques, postoperative visual function remains unpredictable. Numerous studies have shown that while a patient's best-corrected visual acuity after surgery may be improved compared to preoperative levels, it does not fully recover to pre-disease levels.
The foveal avascular zone (FAZ) is an avascular area in the central macular region surrounded by a continuous network of capillaries. The retinal capillary plexus is composed of the superficial vascular plexus located in the nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell layer, and the deep vascular plexus located in the inner nuclear layer. In the superficial vascular plexus, the vessels are radially distributed, while in the deep vascular plexus, the vessels are distributed around the fovea with vertical connections. Under physiological conditions, the FAZ of the normal eye is circular or elliptical with a diameter of about 500–600µm. The reported measurements of the superficial and deep FAZ of the normal eye vary among different studies, with the superficial FAZ ranging from 0.17 to 0.573mm2 and the deep FAZ ranging from 0.3 to 0.659mm2[7]. Most studies have reported significant differences between the superficial and deep FAZ. Enlargement of the FAZ in the macular region is a pathological change reflecting foveal ischemia, which is related to visual function and prognosis in retinal vascular diseases[8].
Our research found that IMH patients who had a greater improvement in postoperative vision had a relatively smaller preoperative FAZ (Fig. 2). We speculate that there are several mechanisms at play. Tornambe[9] proposed the hydration theory after observing OCT images of a large number of IMH patients, which suggests that the liquefied vitreous hydrates the surface of the macular region after retinal defects caused by posterior vitreous detachment. In a normal physiological state, the integrity of the retinal pigment epithelial layer ensures retinal homeostasis. Once small defects occur in the retinal pigment epithelium, the integrity and stability of the retinal pigment epithelium are disrupted, and the unique structure of the macular region causes it to accumulate fluids in an unbalanced state and become exposed to vitreous fluid, resulting in thickening and outward displacement of the edges of the macular hole. We speculate that when fluid accumulates in the macular region, the choroid underneath the macula plays the main role in fluid outflow, while the capillary network in the macular area also contributes to some degree due to the macular hole. Patients with a larger FAZ may have insufficient capillary network outflow, which may make them more prone to macular ischemia and edema caused by DCP ischemia, as reported by Scarinci et al.[10], which can lead to damage to the outer retina, including the outer nuclear layer and photoreceptors, and impair vision. Therefore, a larger FAZ corresponds to a lower visual acuity. Another mechanism is that when a macular hole appears in patients, visual function decreases, and the energy needed by photoreceptors and related cells decreases, leading to a corresponding decrease in blood flow. As the choroidal blood flow in the macular area decreases, the avascular zone of the macular fovea will also expand to a certain extent along with the decrease in visual function. As shown in Kotaro Tsuboi et al.'s[3] research, this expansion is reversible, and if the macular hole is closed, the avascular zone of the macular fovea will gradually return to normal. Yoshiyuki Kita et al.[11] reported that after MH closure, FAZ will significantly decrease, and the size of the FAZ in the affected eye will be symmetric with that in the contralateral eye. The size of the postoperative FAZ is affected by the postoperative thickness of the macular fovea and is unrelated to the size of the MH. However, Miao Zeng et al.[12] reported that the superficial and deep FAZ gradually increased before and after surgery at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Due to the difficulty in follow-up caused by the epidemic situation in China, this study did not complete the follow-up work for 6 months after surgery. Many studies have now confirmed that after the successful closure of the macular hole, retinal tissue undergoes centripetal movement[13] as seen in fundus photographs, OCT, and OCTA. In our study, we also found a corresponding decrease in FAZ after surgery (Fig. 3). Due to the inflammatory response caused by the surgery and the influence of the vitreous cavity filling material, visual acuity does not improve significantly in the short term after surgery. Generally, from 1 month to 3 months after surgery, as the intraocular environment gradually stabilizes, visual acuity gradually improves to its peak. At this time, the FAZ of each layer tends to be stable, and a smaller preoperative FAZ corresponds to a stronger macular function, a smaller diameter of the macular hole, more blood vessels in the macular.
Lafe et al.[14] reported that the vessel density of the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) of the retina decreases with age, while the foveal avascular zone (FAZ) area increases with age. Patients within 10 years of age were selected to control for the impact of age on FAZ. Among the 23 patients with clear postoperative FAZ imaging selected in this study, significant reductions in FAZ size were observed in all layers one week after surgery, followed by a significant increase in size in all layers one month after surgery. Akahori et al.[15] reported that after macular hole surgery, the retina in the foveal area moves toward the nasal side, which may be due to the contraction of the retina after removal of the internal limiting membrane during surgery, or the buoyancy generated by gas filling and the centripetal contraction during closure causing the retina to rotate downwards. Due to the closure of the macular hole and the centripetal displacement of the retina, the FAZ will shrink rapidly one week after surgery, but this shrinkage is artificially induced. As time passes and the ocular blood flow stabilizes, the avascular zone in the center of the macula gradually increases as blood flow decreases. This result is consistent with many domestic and foreign studies. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the FAZ size among the layers one month and three months after surgery, which may be due to the inclusion of patients with unhealed macular holes in this study. For these patients, tissue repair is limited, and the demand for blood flow is reduced, which may lead to stabilization of blood flow one month after surgery. It is also possible that tissue repair in the eyes of patients with macular holes slows down after one month postoperatively, and although FAZ size increases in all layers, the rate of increase is not statistically significant.
Many scholars have used OCT to study preoperative morphology of macular holes (MH) and to identify predictive factors for postoperative visual outcomes. Ogasawara et al.[16] reported a positive correlation between superficial foveal avascular zone (FAZ) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) after treatment for macular branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO), while all other FAZ layers were not related to microstructural parameters of photoreceptors. D.H. Steel et al.[17] prospectively studied 1483 patients using the BEAVRS database to investigate pre- and postoperative MH size and BCVA, and found that patients with higher preoperative BCVA, smaller hole diameter, shorter symptom duration, and no age-related macular degeneration (AMD) had better postoperative BCVA. They also found that maximizing the time from symptom onset to surgery could greatly improve postoperative BCVA, especially for patients within 4 months of symptom onset. However, our study did not show such results, possibly due to the small sample size and the fact that most patients in this study had a short duration of illness, which may not be representative of patients with symptom onset of more than 4 months. Gupta and Meng[18, 19] reported that the final BCVA of patients with closed macular holes was influenced by preoperative BCVA. Many researchers, such as Dan Cheng[20], have found that the deep FAZ is more representative than the entire FAZ, but this study only showed that the superficial FAZ was less representative than the deep and entire FAZ, possibly due to the use of manually drawn deep FAZ in this experiment.
This study made efforts to minimize the influence of axial length, age, and race on preoperative FAZ, and included patients who underwent a unified surgical procedure. Since all patients received cataract surgery and had no other ocular diseases, the closure of the macular hole was the most important factor influencing postoperative visual acuity. The aim of this study was to provide reference for the prognosis of patients with idiopathic macular holes based on preoperative examination results.
As this study was a prospective study with a small sample size and lacked a control group, there were certain limitations. The results of this study need to be further validated by expanding the sample size and conducting multicenter controlled studies.