Clinicopathologic correlation of stage 2 macular hole.

Abstract

To provide histopathologic correlation of the appearance of a stage 2 macular hole. A 79-year-old woman presented with a recent onset of mildly decreased vision in the right eye. With slit-lamp biomicroscopic examination and fundus photography, she was diagnosed as having a stage 2 macular hole. Her vision remained stable thereafter without intervention for 15 months. She died 6 months after her final follow-up examination. Postmortem histopathologic examination of the right eye was carried out by light microscopy of conventional and immunoperoxidase-stained sections. The clinical appearance of a stage 2 macular hole in this patient corresponded with findings of intraretinal splitting, which extended beyond an area of surface retinal defect. Surface retinal defects associated with intraretinal splitting are a pathway in the development of a macular hole.