Optical coherence tomography of idiopathic macular epiretinal membrane before and after urgery

PURPOE: To examine the preoperative and potoperative anatomical feature of the macula uing optical coherence tomography in patient who underwent urgery for epiretinal membrane and to correlate thee feature with functional reult. METHOD: In a noncomparative interventional erie, 62 eye of 62 conecutive patient operated on for an idiopathic epiretinal membrane were followed up uing a tandardized protocol. Preoperative and potoperative examination included bet-corrected viual acuity uing an Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy tudy chart, biomicrocopy of the fundu with a contact len, fundu photography with blue and green filter, fluorecein angiography, and optical coherence tomography. REULT: Median preoperative viual acuity wa 20/60 (range, 20/32 to 20/320). Median potoperative viual acuity wa 20/40 (range, 20/20 to 20/160). Fifty-one eye (82%) obtained viual acuity of 20/50 or better. Preoperatively, all eye had increaed macular thickne (mean, 419 ± 105 μm; range, 265.5 to 689 μm), with diappearance of the foveal pit. An epiretinal membrane wa viible on optical coherence tomography can in 26 cae (42%). Intraretinal cytic pace were preent in the thickened macular tiue in 15 cae but correponded to cytoid macular edema on fluorecein angiography in only three. Potoperatively, mean macular thickne decreaed to 300 ± 65 μm (range, 185 to 511 μm) but returned to normal in only three eye. The foveal pit reappeared in 20 eye. Preoperatively, viual acuity correlated with macular thickne (r = 0.56, P < .0001), but not potoperatively (r = 0.12, P = .37). CONCLUION: Macular thickne decreae after epiretinal membrane urgery, but the macular profile rarely return to normal. However, thi doe not preclude atifactory improvement of viual acuity.