Reader: My mother started to feel distortion and vision loss at the beginning of this year, she went to the hospital and said that there is a problem with macula.
Zheng Bin: Macula is the normal tissue of human eyes, and it is the part with the sharpest vision. When there is edema, hemorrhage, proliferating membrane and fissure in the macula, patients will experience visual distortion, visual discoloration, and seriously affect the central vision. Therefore, when patients have clear visual distortion, it is mainly considered as lesion in macular area, and it is recommended to go to ophthalmology hospital for professional macular OCT, fundus fluorescence angiography examination, etc. to make clear diagnosis and active treatment.
Reader: I am 65 years old and was recently diagnosed with “macular anterior membrane in the right eye and cataract in both eyes”. Can I take medicine or have surgery?
Bin Zheng: Clinically, for the macular anterior membrane without any clear cause, it is called idiopathic macular anterior membrane, and the main treatment is surgery. At present, for those who have progressive vision loss below 0.5 or macular edema, active surgery is recommended. Especially nowadays, 23G minimally invasive vitrectomy surgery is widely used, the operation time is short, the anterior membrane tissue is peeled off and removed during the operation, the pull on the retina is released, there are few complications and the recovery of vision after the operation is ideal. In combination with your age, you need to have cataract surgery in your right eye at the same time.
Reader: My grandfather was diagnosed with “total macular fissure in the left eye” some time ago, can this be treated surgically? Is the surgery painful?
Zheng Bin: Macular fissure is the rupture or defect of retinal tissue in the center of macular area caused by various reasons, clinically it is divided into stage I to IV according to different stages of fissure formation. For the full-layer fissure you mentioned, it may be macular fissure stage III-IV. With the continuous development and maturity of vitrectomy technology, especially the current wide application of 23G and 25G vitrectomy surgery, for those who are diagnosed with stage II-IV idiopathic macular fissure, have obvious vision loss, have obvious visual deformation and are willing to accept surgery, it is recommended to actively do biosurgery treatment. The recovery of postoperative visual acuity is related to the formation time of the fissure, the size of the fissure, the extent of the lesion and whether it is combined with serious complications. The surgery mainly uses minimally invasive methods, with little pain and fast recovery time. I hope your grandfather will visit the hospital as soon as possible for active treatment and early recovery.