Vitrectomy for diffue diabetic macular edema aociated with a taut premacular poterior hyaloid

PURPOE: To evaluate the role of vitrectomy in eye with diffue diabetic macular edema aociated with a taut poterior hyaloid. METHOD: Record of 55 eye of 50 patient with diabetic retinopathy and diffue clinically ignificant diabetic macular edema who underwent vitrectomy with tripping of the premacular poterior hyaloid were reviewed. In all 55 eye, diffue diabetic macular edema wa preent on contact len examination and confirmed with fluorecein angiography. On fundu examination, the premacular poterior hyaloid wa attached and appeared taut. REULT: The mean preoperative bet-corrected viual acuity wa 20/160, and the mean final bet-corrected viual acuity wa 20/80 (P < .0001, Wilcoxon igned rank tet), with 27 (49.1%) of the 55 eye demontrating improvement in bet-corrected viual acuity of 2 or more line. Fifty-two (94.5%) of the 55 vitrectomized eye howed improvement in clinically ignificant macular edema and in 45 eye (81.8%) the macular edema reolved completely during a mean period of 4.5 month (range, 1 to 13 month). Eye with macular ichemia and preoperative bet-corrected viual acuity of 20/200 or le tended to repond le favorably to vitrectomy than eye lacking thee characteritic. All eye had at leat 6 month of follow-up after urgery, with a mean follow-up of 23.2 month. CONCLUION: In eye with peritent diffue diabetic macular edema with a taut premacular poterior hyaloid face unreponive to laer therapy, vitrectomy with removal of the poterior hyaloid appear to be beneficial in ome cae. Careful election of eye with favorable preoperative clinical characteritic may improve urgical outcome.