[Surgery of idiopathic epimacular membranes. Prognostic factors]

Seventy consecutive cases of idiopathic epimacular membrane removal were reviewed in order to evaluate the prognosis factors of this surgery. The characteristics analyzed where the duration of the symptoms, pre and postoperative visual acuity and the macular changes on fluorescein angiography. The mean follow-up after surgery was 9 months. Mean preoperative visual acuity was 0.17 and the mean best postoperative visual acuity 0.43. Visual acuity improved by 2 lines or more in 81% of the cases and the mean improvement was 3.5 lines. The complications of epimacular membrane surgery included nuclear cataract (10 eyes underwent cataract surgery), peripheral retinal breaks (3%), and retinal detachment (3%) successfully operated. Three of the main preoperative data were related to better postoperative visual outcome: preoperative visual acuity: eyes with visual acuity of 0.16 or more tended to have better postoperative vision than eyes with poorer preoperative vision (mean postoperative visual acuity 0.5 and 0.34 respectively; p < or = 0.05); duration of visual impairment before surgery: eyes with a visual impairment of less than 2 years had better postoperative vision than the others (mean postoperative visual acuity, 0.5 and 0.3 respectively; p < or = 0.05); the absence of preoperative angiographic macular edema: eyes without preoperative macular edema had better postoperative vision than the others (mean postoperative visual acuity: 0.5 and 0.4 respectively; p < or = 0.05). The normal postoperative pattern of macular vessels and foveolar shape was also a statistically significant factor of good vision recovery.