Background: A macular hole is a common macular disorder that impairs central vision significantly.
Aim of the study: To compare between silicone oil (SOi) versus sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) as tamponading agent after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling in healing of idiopathic macular hole and improvement of visual acuity.
Patient and methods: Patients with idiopathic full thickness macular hole (FTMH) were categorized into 2 groups , group 1(15 eyes) were managed with PPV and ILM peeling and (SF6) as atamponade, group 2 (15 eyes) were managed with PPV and ILM peeling and (SOi) as a tamponade. All patients' best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), and optical coherence tomography (OCT) were followed up for six months.
Results: Six months postoperatively BCVA in LogMAR in the first (Gas) group improved from a baseline mean of 1.23 to 0.41, gaining an improvement of 66.33 %, which is more than the improvement of the second (SOi) group from a baseline of 1.19 to 0.56 (53.72%) so this difference was significant (P- value 0.026 (. Just two cases , one case in each group (6.4 %) hole failed to close after six months. The success rate was 94%, with no statistically significant difference.
Conclusion: Idiopathic (FTMH) treated with (PPV) with ILM peeling . Both SF6 and (SOi) tamponades are similarly effective in anatomical and visual results, using (SOi) in macular hole surgery necessitates two surgeries: one for the initial vitrectomy and (SOi) injection, and another several weeks later to extract the oil.