Visual outcomes following vitrectomy and peeling of epiretinal membrane

Visual outcomes of patients following vitrectomy and peeling of visually significant epiretinal membranes were assessed to determine the influence of specific perioperative factors and surgical complications on final visual acuity and functional vision.

In an unmatched, consecutive surgical series, vitrectomy and membrane peeling were performed on 125 eyes of 123 patients with visually significant macular epiretinal membranes. Patients were followed for 6-36 months. Visual outcome measures included postoperative logMAR visual acuity, change in visual acuity and functional vision tasks evaluated by questionnaire. Perioperative factors including duration of symptoms, preoperative visual acuity, aetiology, membrane type and leakage on fundal fluorescein angiogram were correlated with final visual outcomes.

Visual acuity improved by a mean of 0.31 A+/- 0.21 units (three lines of vision). In 104 cases (83%), visual acuity improved in patients by two lines or more, with 20 cases (16%) having unchanged acuity and one case (1%) having worse acuity. Ninety-three per cent of interviewed cases reported improvement in functional vision, especially reduction of distortion. Cataract was observed in 52 cases (52% of phakic eyes) postoperatively compared with 19 cases (19%) preoperatively. Postoperative visual acuity correlated with preoperative visual acuity. Patients with worse preoperative vision recorded greater visual improvement following surgery. No other perioperative factors were found to have a prognostic value in this study.

Epiretinal membrane peeling improves vision in the majority of patients with significant symptoms, even if preoperative visual acuity is not substantially reduced. Surgery improves functional vision including metamorphopsia not measurable by visual acuity, and thus assessment of functional vision should be included in surgical case planning.