Limited macular translocation: a clinicopathologic case report.

OBJECTIVE: To illustrate the histopathologic findings in a patient who underwent limited macular translocation.

DESIGN: Observational case report.

METHODS: The patient underwent limited macular translocation for subfoveal choroidal neovascularization resulting from age-related macular degeneration. Thirty-one months after surgery, the patient had died and both eyes were obtained at autopsy. Serial sections through both maculas were obtained. Immunohistochemistry of the foveas with C10C10 and hCAR/LUMIf antibodies for rods and cones, respectively, was performed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Histopathologic changes in the operated eye as compared with the fellow eye.

RESULTS: There was no morphologic difference in the subfoveal retinal pigment epithelium, Bruch's membrane, or choriocapillaris, but there was a decreased cone density in the translocated fovea as compared with the fellow eye.

CONCLUSIONS: In this patient, the fovea was translocated without causing apparent change in the underlying retinal pigment epithelium, Bruch's membrane, or choriocapillaris. Although there may be some photoreceptor loss, the excellent visual recovery suggests that the retinal pigment epithelium underlying the translocated fovea is functionally adequate.