Abstract
Purpose:
To determine the ocular co-morbidities of epiretinal membranes and their relative frequencies.
Methods:
A cross-sectional review of patients seen in our university based retina practice between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012 with a clinical diagnosis of epiretinal membrane (ERM) confirmed by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) (Spectralis, Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) was performed. Age, gender, ethnicity, past ocular history, ocular co-morbidities, and visual acuity were recorded.
Results:
In total, 341 eyes of 228 patients were found to have ERM. 53.1% of patients were female and 46.9% were male. Mean age was 67.3 years. 83.3% of eyes had a history of an ocular co-morbidity, trauma or procedure/surgery, while 16.7% of eyes were idiopathic or had no such associated history. 50.4% of eyes were phakic, 48.1% pseudophakic, and 1.5% aphakic. 26.1% of eyes had diabetic retinopathy (DR), 12.9% had age-related macular degeneration (AMD), 1.5% had a history of retinal vein occlusion (RVO), 2.6% had a history of intermediate or posterior uveitis, 39.7% had a posterior vitreous detachment, 8.5% had a history of retinal tear or detachment, and 3.5% had a history of trauma. 9.4% of eyes had history of focal laser, 10.9% pan-retinal photocoagulation, and 5.3% laser retinopexy. 49.3% of eyes had cataract surgery, and 7.9% had a history of posterior segment surgery. The mean logMAR visual acuity of eyes whose only pathology was ERM was 0.34, while eyes with co-morbidities or previous procedure showed a mean of 0.43 (p<0.01).
Conclusions:
While the exact pathogenesis of ERM remains to be fully elucidated, previous studies examining ocular co-morbidities have reported that ERM is often idiopathic. In our cross-sectional study, the majority of patients had a history of ocular co-morbidity, trauma or procedure, which may have treatment and prognostic implications.
Keywords: 688 retina •
585 macula/fovea