AIM: To investigate the effect of retinal inner limiting membrane peeling(ILMP)without staining on the vision and prognosis in idiopathic macular hole(IMH)patients.

METHODS: Totally 83 patients(83 eyes)with idiopathic macular hole in our hospital were selected and randomly divided into two groups according to the inner limiting membrane peeling approach. The 42 cases of A group underwent inner limiting membrane peeling stained with brilliant blue G(BBG), while the other 41 cases of B group received inner limiting membrane peeling without staining. And at the corresponding period, 40 patients without inner limiting membrane peeling was selected as the control group.

RESULTS: Patients were followed up for 6mo, the amount of cases with healed macular hole in the A and B group(41, 40 patients respectively)was larger than that of the control group(25 patients)(P<0.05); the visual acuity recovery in A and B group was significantly better than the control group(P<0.05); evaluated by multifocal ERG, the P1 response densities of ring 1 and 2 of first-order function were significantly higher(P<0.05)than the control group; operation time spent in inner limiting membrane peeling was longer for group A(234.7±9.2s)than group B(168.4±7.2s)(P<0.05).

CONCLUSION: Application ofvitrectomy without inner limiting membrane staining can achieve better visual functional recovery with less surgical time. Meanwhile, it avoids the retinal toxicity caused by coloring agent. It is worthy of wider promotion and application.