What Is a Macular Hole?

A macular hole is an eye condition that affects vision ability, and can worsen if left untreated, resulting in temporary visual impairment, or permanent vision loss, if it is left untreated.
  1. Significance

    • Macular holes can cause rather frightening experiences for suffers. The affected eye can suddenly become distorted and blurry. These symptoms can occur unexpectedly without previously detected signs or symptoms.

    The Macula

    • The macula is vital to vision ability, since it is responsible for visual accuracy, crystal clear images, and color vision. It is located in the back of the eye, at the central part of the retina, and functions like a camera lens.

    Features

    • As people age, the vitreous humor (gel-like substance that holds the eye together) begins to liquefy and shrink. This sometimes causes "tugging" at the retina. If shrinkage occurs at the center of the retina, this could cause a hole in the retina's macula, called a macular hole.

    Causes

    • The primary cause of macular holes is related to the natural aging process, when eye tissues begin to shrink and weaken, putting the eye at risk for various possible conditions. Aside from age the causes of macular holes include eye injuries, extreme nearsightedness, macular pucker, and detached retina.

    Symptoms

    • Symptoms of a macular hole include sudden decreased central vision (which affects the visual sharpness and clarity of objects both up close and in the distance), extreme focal strain for reading or driving activities, distorted central vision that causes straight lines to appear wavy, and a dark spot (blind spot) that appear in the central vision field, which arrives as the hole progresses without treatment.

    Treatment

    • Macular holes are treated with a vitrectomy procedure, during which the vitreous gel that is causing the pull on the retina in removed and replaced by a mixture that promotes healing of the hole. This procedure sometimes requires two to three weeks of lying face down, according to AllAboutVision.com.

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