Abstract
Purpose: :
Toevaluate the recovery of photoreceptor cone outer segment tips (COST) line, inner segment/outer segment (IS/OS) line of photoreceptor, external limiting membrane (ELM) and visual outcomes after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for epiretinal membrane (ERM).
Methods: :
Fifty-eight eyes of 53 patients with ERM that underwent PPV at the last follow-up examination at least 6 months were reviewed retrospectively. The mean diameter of COST line, IS/OS line, ELM defect was calculated by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT; OCT4000, Carl Zeiss Meditec) and compared with visual outcomes after ERM surgery. These length of defect were decided by averaging the vertical and holizontal length of images. Forward stepwise regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relation between postoperative length of COST line, IS/OS line and ELM defect on SD-OCT and visual acuity at preoperatively, and 1, 3, 6, 9,12 months after operation.
Results: :
Preoperative COST line defect was 874.1 µm and the COST line defect was gradually restored 1, 3, 6, 9, 12 months after operation (575.3 µm, 362.2 µm, 354.2 µm, 208.3 µm, 203.6 µm, respectively). The smaller COST defect was correlated with better visual acuity before operation and all postoperative period (P<0.001). Explanatory variable that were found to relevant to best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) pre-operation and all postoperative period was length of COST line defect only (P<0.001). After postoperative 9 months, the length of IS/OS line defect was also significantly correlated to BCVA (P<0.001).
Conclusions: :
Recovery of COST line defect may be related with visual recovery after ERM surgery.
Keywords: photoreceptors • vitreoretinal surgery • visual acuity