Macular hole and retinal detachment.
Within a 4-year period 6 eyes with a macular hole and rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (1.7% of all rhegmatogenous detachments) were operated on. In 2 eyes no other retinal tears were found, 4 eyes showed additional peripheral tears. Three eyes were myopic (-3.75 to -9.0 D) and one was aphakic. All but one eye were encircled, 3 eyes had a peripheral radial plomb and another 3 had a macular sling procedure using a silastic sponge explant in addition. Cryotherapy was applied on the macular hole in one eye and photocoagulation in one eye. In 5 of the 6 cases the retina reattached. The silastic sponge sling resulted in shallow indentation and caused little distortion at the macula. Coagulation of the macular hole seemed to be unnecessary.