Clinical features of traumatic macular holes secondary to globe contusion versus those secondary to blast-related ocular trauma
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31288/Ukr.j.ophthalmol.202635560Keywords:
traumatic macular hole, blast-related trauma, globe contusion, macular hole, optical coherence tomography, vitrectomy, sclopetaria, retinaAbstract
Purpose. To examine the clinical features of traumatic macular holes (TMHs) secondary to globe contusion versus those secondary to blast-related ocular trauma (BROT) based on the review of medical records of patients visiting SI “The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine” in 2018-2025.
Material and Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 35 patients with TMH who underwent examination and treatment at SI “The Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine” in 2018-2025. Patients were divided into two groups based on the mechanism of trauma, with group 1 including 18 patients (18 eyes) with TMHs secondary to a closed-globe injury (namely, globe contusion), and group 2, 17 patients (17 eyes) with TMHs secondary to BROT.
Results. We found that TMHs secondary to globe contusion had a smaller size and an oval shape, and may spontaneously close, with better functional outcomes. TMHs secondary to BROT were relatively large and round, and were associated with isolated or multiple choroidal ruptures. The latter TMHs, when accompanied by subfoveally located choroidal ruptures, had lower visual acuity and limited improvement toward closure after surgical treatment. Surgery failed to achieve anatomical hole closure in two patients.
Conclusion. There are substantial differences in morphology, course, and visual prognosis of surgery between TMHs secondary to globe contusion and those secondary to BROT. The former are characterized by a more favorable clinical course, whereas the latter are accompanied by more severe ocular lesions, with lower visual function and the conditions creating a challenge in the diagnostic evaluation.
References
Knapp H. Ueber isolirte zerreissungen der aderhaut infolge von traumen auf augapel. Arch Augenheilkd 1869;1:6-29.
Miller JB, Yonekawa Y, Eliott D et al., Long-term follow-up and outcomes in traumatic macular holes. Am J Ophthalmol. 2015; 160(6): 1255-1258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2015.09.004
Budoff G, Bhagat N, Zarbin MA. Traumatic Macular Hole: Diagnosis, Natural History, and Management. J Ophthalmol. 2019 Mar 19;2019:5837832. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5837832
Liu W, Grzybowski A. Current Management of Traumatic Macular Holes. J Ophthalmol. 2017;2017:1748135.https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1748135
Ulianova N, Sidak-Petretska O, Bondar N. Outcomes of vitrectomy for chorioretinitis sclopetaria following blast-related ocular trauma. Int J Retina Vitreous. 2025 Apr 22;11(1):49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40942-025-00674-5
Lanza M, editor. OCT - Applications in Ophthalmology. 2018. 200 p. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.74129.https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74129
Cheng SW, Patton N, Ahmed M, Ivanova T, Baumann C, Charles S, Jalil A. The Manchester Large Macular Hole Study: Is it Time to Reclassify Large Macular Holes? Am J Ophthalmol. 2018 Nov;195:36-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2018.07.027
Zhou Q, Feng H, Lv H, Fu Z, Xue Y and Ye H. Vitrectomy vs. Spontaneous Closure for Traumatic Macular Hole: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front. Med. 2021; 8:735968. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.735968
Chen H, Chen W, Zheng K, Peng K, Xia H, Zhu L. Prediction of spontaneous closure of traumatic macular hole with spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Sci Reports. 2015; 5, article 12343 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep12343
Chen HJ, Jin Y, Shen LJ, Wang Y, Li ZY, Fang XY, et al. Traumatic macular hole study: A multicenter comparative study between immediate vitrectomy and six-month observation for spontaneous closure. Ann Transl Med 2019;7:726.https://doi.org/10.21037/atm.2019.12.20
Kusuhara S, Teraoka Escaño MF, Fujii S, Nakanishi Y, Tamura Y, Nagai A, et al. Prediction of postoperative visual outcome based on hole configuration by optical coherence tomography in eyes with idiopathic macular holes. Am J Ophthalmol. 2004 Nov;138(5):709-16.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2004.04.063
Lei C, Chen L. Traumatic Macular Hole: Clinical Management and Optical Coherence Tomography Features. J Ophthalmol. 2020 Oct 20;2020:4819468.https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4819468
Sergio E. Hernandez-Da Mota. Posttraumatic Giant Macular Hole. Case Reports in Ophthalmology. 2011, 2 (2): 283-286.https://doi.org/10.1159/000331114
Miller JB, Yonekawa Y, Eliott D, Kim IK, Kim LA, Loewenstein JI, Sobrin L, Young LH, Mukai S, Vavvas DG. Long-term Follow-up and Outcomes in Traumatic Macular Holes. Am J Ophthalmol. 2015 Dec;160(6):1255-1258.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajo.2015.09.004
Ludwig CA, Shields RA, Do DV, Moshfeghi DM, Mahajan VB. Traumatic chorioretinitis sclopetaria: Risk factors, management, and prognosis. Am J Ophthalmol Case Rep. 2019 Feb 16;14:39-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajoc.2019.02.004
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Kantser K.S., Ulianova N.A., Iakymenko I.V., Umanets M.M.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) that allows users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author as long as they cite the source.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors hold copyright immediately after publication of their works and retain publishing rights without any restrictions.
- The copyright commencement date complies the publication date of the issue, where the article is included in.
DEPOSIT POLICY
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) during the editorial process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Post-print (post-refereeing manuscript version) and publisher's PDF-version self-archiving is allowed.
- Archiving the pre-print (pre-refereeing manuscript version) not allowed.









