Recovery of visual function following surgery for persistent hypotony maculopathy secondary to traumatic cyclodialysis

A 43-year-old female was referred to us for impaired visual acuity in her left eye. She had had suffered blunt trauma in the left eye by a flying piece of stone 13 months before. Her left eye showed corrected visual acuity of 0.7, intraocular pressure(IOP) of 7mmHg, and partial cyclodialysis. Funduscopy showed persistent hypotony maculopathy in the affected eye. Full-field electroretinogram (ERG) was normal. Focal macular ERG (MERG) showed reduced amplitudes in a-wave, b-wave and oscillatory potential to about 50% of those in the fellow eye. The peak latencies were also delayed. The findings were suggestive of impaired function at the level of photoreceptors in the macular area. Scleral shortening induced normalized IOP, improved visual acuity to 1.2, and recovery of electrophysiological visual function to that of the fellow eye. The findings illustrate that surgery may induce recovery of visual function in persistent hypotony maculopathy.