What is the likelihood of experiencing a complication from my macular hole surgery?
MAR 10, 2014
Question:
I am considering macular hole surgery and wondered whether it was possible to quantify the risk of the following complications occurring: infection of the eye, bleeding of the eye, retinal detachment, worsening of vision, and accelerated cataract formation.
Answer:
Macular hole surgery has a greater than 90 percent chance of surgical success which is defined as closure of the macular hole. Depending on the size and duration of the hole, the chance of obtaining vision good enough to read or drive is between 50 and 70 percent. The chance of it being worse is less than 10 percent. The most common cause of vision being worse is failure of the surgery to close the hole, but most patients end up no worse than they would have if they had not had surgery because most untreated macular holes end up with vision of 20/200 or worse. Nearly everyone who has macular hole surgery will require cataract surgery and therefore some surgeons recommend cataract surgery before or at the time of macular hole surgery. The chance of infection or major bleeding is less than 1 in 1000.