Surgical treatments In cases of thick submacular hemorrhage, intravitreal or subretinal tissue plasminogen activator injection with pneumatic displacement may be helpful in some patients. Submacular surgery, involving the removal of the CNV from beneath the fovea, and macular translocation surgery, in which the fovea is moved over to an area of healthier RPE, are complex surgical techniques that were developed prior to anti-VEGF agents and have largely been abandoned today.