Macular Appearance After Diabetic Vitrectomy

Vitrectomy is one of the major treatment methods for complications of diabetic retinopathy. As surgical techniques and instruments improve, high anatomical success may be achieved; however, functional results are less favorable. Despite attached retina, postoperative visual function may be affected by various macular and disc abnormalities. Major changes include optic atrophy, atrophic retina, poor macular perfusion, and structural alternations of the macula. Funduscopy, fluorescein angiography, and, more recently, optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be used to detect and document these alterations. Although fluorescein angiography is valuable in the assessment of various macular lesions as well as retinal vascular abnormalities, its usefulness in evaluating macular changes is limited in eyes that have undergone diabetic vitrectomy. The quality of the images may be compromised by mild diffuse hyperfluorescence in the posterior pole in middle and late phase angiography, which obscures capillary detail and subtle macular changes. Furthermore, quantification of changes may not be possible. Recently, optical coherence tomography has become very useful for the detection of vitreomacular abnormalities. The examination is noninvasive, can qualify the changes and detect subtle abnormalities not evident with other imaging studies. In this study, OCT was applied to investigate how common macular structure abnormalities are present after surgery for complications of diabetic retinopathy, and how they may affect visual prognosis.