Surgical Outcomes of Idiopathic Macular Epiretinal Membrane Peeling

To evaluate the surgical outcomes of idiopathic macular epiretinal membrane (IERM) peeling in terms of visual acuity and macular thickness.

Observational cross-sectional study.

Al-Ibrahim Eye Hospital, Karachi, from June 2017 to February 2018.

Patients aged >50 years having IERM confirmed with optical coherence tomography (OCT) were included in the study. All patients underwent 3-port pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) followed by epiretinal membrane peeling. Log Mar visual acuity chart was used for documenting visual acuity pre- and postoperatively. OCT was performed for documenting changes in macular thickness pre- and postoperatively. Every patient completed their follow-up of six months.

Mean age of the 43 patients was found to be 59.98 ±6.1 years. Mean pre- and postoperative visual acuity of Log Mar showed 0.59 ±0.21 and 0.33 ±0.21, respectively (p<0.001). Mean macular thickness on OCT pre- and postoperatively were 479 ±82.5 and 315 ±82.4 m, respectively (p<0.001). In thirty-one (72.1%) eyes, there was improvement in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) postoperatively, 9 (20.9%) eyes remained stable; whereas, 3 (7%) eyes had decreased visual acuity at final follow-up of six months.

Peeling of IERM is a safe surgical procedure. It is associated with significant improvement in best corrected visual acuity postoperatively along with improvement in anatomical outcomes in terms of decrease macular thickness as measured by OCT.