Macular hole surgery following accidental laser injury with a military rangefinder

An active duty marine corps service member had bilateral full thickness macular holes induced following accidental Q-switched laser exposure from a hand held Neodymium range finder (ANGVS-5). The right eye had a large hole nasal to the fovea, while the left eye had a much smaller hole closer to the fovea centralis. Over the 18 months following the injury, the left eye demonstrated mild progressive degradation in visual function, but retained 20/20 final visual acuity. In contrast, the hole in the right eye increased in size, developed a localized retinal detachment with cystic changes in the fovea, and had atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium. Within 6 months after injury, acuity declined to 20/100. Macular hole surgery was performed with a goal of sealing the edges of the hole in order to allow resolution of the localized detachment and cystic changes in the fovea. In spite of surgical techniques that are generally successful in the treatment of macular holes associated with other etiologies, the fundus findings remained unchanged and visual acuity declined to 20/400. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report of macular hole surgery for this condition.