internal limiting membrane, surgical adjuvants, best corrected visual acuity improvement, primary macular hole closure rate, network meta-analysis, Ophthalmology, RE1-994

AIM: To compare the outcomes of four adjuvants used for internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling in macular hole surgery, including indocyanine green (ICG), brilliant blue G (BBG), triamcinolone (TA) and trypan blue (TB), through systematic review and random-effects Bayesian network Meta-analysis. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane library databases and Web of Science were searched until August 2018 for clinical trials comparing the above four adjuvants. ORs for postoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) improvement and primary macular hole closure rates were compared between the different adjuvants. RESULTS: Twenty-seven eligible articles were included. For postoperative BCVA improvement, results of BBG-assisted peeling were significantly more favorable than those of ICG (WMD 0.08, 95% credible interval 0.01-0.16) and TA ranked highest. No significant differences were found between any other two groups in postoperative BCVA improvement. For postoperative primary macular hole closure rates, BBG ranked highest. However, no significant differences were shown between any two groups. CONCLUSION: TA and BBG are the optimum adjuvants for achieving postoperative BCVA improvement macular hole surgery with adjuvant-assisted ILM peeling. Among all adjuvants, the use of BBG is associated with the highest postoperative macular hole closure rate.