Abstract
Purpose:
Epiretinal membranes (ERM) could lead to significant metamorphopsia and vision loss, that is why a concise evaluation of the macular function in ERM is needed. The assessment of central retinal thickness by OCT predominantly supplies information of the anatomical rather than the functional outcome. The use of microperimetry, that measures the retinal sensitivity, has greatly improved the psychophysical testing role in the evaluation of any maculopathy including ERM. Vitrectomy with internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling is used to treat eyes with ERM. The purpose of this study is to analize the correlation of visual function with macular morphological and volumetric changes of the retinal layers before and after the idiopathic ERM surgery
Methods:
10 patients with ERM underwent a vitrectomy with ILM peeling. A complete standardized evaluation was performed including best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). A macular integrity assessment device named MAIA (Topcon Medical Systems, Inc.) was used to measure visual sensitivity and fixation stability and the Optical Coherence Tomography 3D OCT-1000 (Topcon Medical Systems, Inc.) to study the anatomical profile and central macular thickness (CMT) in all cases before and after the surgery.
Results:
In all cases the complete ERM was removed without complication and was confirmed by OCT but regarding BCVA only 6 patients improved a mean of 2 lines of visual acuity; 3 maintained the same vision and 1 lost one line. We analyzed the correlation between the morphological changes and the visual function before and after surgery to better understand the visual results after surgery.
Conclusions:
Microperimetry can provide useful information of retinal function and analyze the progression of the functional loss or improvement after surgical treatments. Functional (central visual acuity and visual field) and morphologic parameters (retinal thickness) are significantly related.
Keywords: 552 imaging methods (CT, FA, ICG, MRI, OCT, RTA, SLO, ultrasound) •
758 visual fields •
762 vitreoretinal surgery