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The natural history of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) leads to scarring and loss of vision. Since the advent of anti-VEGF therapies, which are very effective for controlling exudation, large disciform scars are rarely encountered in the clinic. However long term studies show that smaller and less severe fibrotic scars are not uncommon and develop over time despite optimal treatment. This means that additional mechanisms of action may be required to completely address this condition. To permit new treatments, a proper understanding of the clinical impact of fibrosis is required. This review is focused on clinical aspects of fibrosis and summarises recent data on biomarkers, prevalence, causes, consequences, and therapies, highlighting the most important and urgent topics to tackle in order to advance in the treatment of fibrosis.

Background: To compare conventional internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling versus inverted flap technique in small idiopathic macular hole.

Methods: Retrospective, multicentre cohort study including consecutive eyes with a ≤250 μm idiopathic macular hole treated with primary vitrectomy. The primary outcome was best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) change and macular hole closure rate. Closure patterns on optical coherence tomography (OCT) and rates of external limiting membrane (ELM) and ellipsoid zone (EZ) recovery were considered as secondary outcomes.

Results: A total of 389 and 250 eyes were included in the conventional ILM peeling group and in the inverted flap group, respectively. Hole closure rate was comparable between the two groups (98.5% in the ILM peeling group and 97.6% in the inverted flap group). Mean BCVA was comparable between the two groups at baseline (p = 0.331). At 12 months, mean BCVA was 0.14 ± 0.19 logMAR in the conventional ILM peeling group and 0.17 ± 0.18 logMAR in the inverted flap group (p = 0.08). At 12 months, 73% of eyes had a U-shape closure morphology in the conventional ILM peeling group versus 55% in the inverted flap group. At 12 months, ELM recovery rate was 96% and 86% in the conventional ILM peeling group and in the inverted flap group, respectively (p < 0.001); EZ recovery rate was 78% and 69%, respectively (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: The inverted flap technique provides no advantages in terms of visual outcome and closure rate in small idiopathic macular hole surgery. Additionally, this technique seems to impair postoperative restoration of external retinal layers compared with conventional peeling.

Non-infectious uveitis (NIU) is one of the leading causes of sight impairment worldwide. Corticosteroids are the mainstay treatment for acute NIU, although their known systemic and ocular side effects limit their long-term use. The most common types of immunosuppressants used as steroid-sparing treatment are non-biologic drugs, particularly antimetabolites (methotrexate, mycophenolate mofetil, and azathioprine) and biologic drugs, mainly TNF-α inhibitors such as Adalimumab or Infliximab. Antimetabolites have shown their effectiveness in the treatment of NIU in individual and comparative studies, being methotrexate and mycophenolate mofetil usually preferred over azathioprine. The choice of which antimetabolite to use at first is not well defined, and decisions usually depend on the patient's characteristics and the physician's preferences. Treatment of NIU with biologic drugs, and particularly TNF-α inhibitors, has significantly increased in the last years and is considered an important alternative in patients not responding to first-line immunomodulators such as antimetabolites. However, data regarding how different immunomodulators or biologic drugs perform in different NIU is still limited, and little is known about the optimization of both biologic and non-biologic drugs when used in NIU. Further randomized clinical trials and comparative studies are required to achieve more understanding and better results when addressing complicated NIU. The purpose of this review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the use of non-biologic and biologic drugs in NIU, which may be useful for clinicians in their daily practice, and to address those aspects that are less known about these treatments as well as their weaknesses.