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Recurrence of epiretinal membrane higher after nonvitrectomizing surgery
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The recurrence rate of idiopathic epiretinal membrane seems to be higher after nonvitrectomizing vitreous surgery than after conventional vitreous surgery, according to a long-term study.
Miki Sawa, MD, and colleagues at Osaka University Medical School led by Yasuo Tano, MD, followed 30 patients for at least 5 years, all of whom had undergone nonvitrectomizing vitreous surgery for epiretinal membrane removal. Unoperated fellow eyes served as controls.
In nonvitrectomizing vitreous surgery, described by Dr. Tano and colleagues in 2000, the epiretinal membrane is peeled without infusion of saline solution and removal of the vitreous. The aim is to prevent postoperative progression of nuclear sclerosis, the most common complication of successful vitrectomy surgery.
In this follow-up study, recurrence of epiretinal membrane, visual acuity, refraction, and slit-lamp and Scheimpflug photographs were evaluated in both eyes. Follow-up time ranged from 60 to 102 months.
No unilateral progression of nuclear sclerosis was seen. Final visual acuity was improved or stabilized within two lines in 29 of the 30 eyes (96.7%).
The mean difference in refractive error between both eyes — the eye that underwent surgery and the fellow eye — was –0.2 D before surgery and –0.3 D after surgery. The mean preoperative and postoperative nuclear densities in 16 patients, measured in nuclear density units, were 69 preop and 76 postop in the operated eyes and 71 preop and 78 postop in the fellow eyes.
Epiretinal membrane recurred in 10 eyes (33%); three underwent conventional vitrectomy combined with cataract surgery.
The study is published in the August issue of Ophthalmology.