Abstract
Purpose :
Microperimetry is increasingly used as a clinical tool to assess macular function in various retinal pathologies. We evaluated the role of microperimetry in assessing retinal sensitivity as a functional outcome measurement in eyes undergoing vitrectomy surgery for epiretinal membrane (ERM) through a retrospective, observational study.
Methods :
Clinical records of patients who underwent vitrectomy surgery for ERM between March 2013 and June 2015 at a single centre were reviewed. Patients underwent comprehensive ophthalmic examination including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), 4-2 full-threshold microperimetry testing (MAIA, CenterVue) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) (Spectralis, Heidelberg) at baseline and at 1 and 3 months post-operatively. Outcome measures were retinal sensitivity (average threshold), BCVA (ETDRS letters) and central macular thickness (CMT). Two-tailed Student’s t-test was used for statistical analysis.
Results :
Twenty-two eyes of 21 patients were included for analysis. Patients had a mean ± standard deviation age of 70±10.1 years, baseline BCVA of 71.2±8.6 letters and retinal sensitivity of 24.9±1.6 decibels (dB). Following surgery, there was an initial improvement in retinal sensitivity by 0.46±1.8 dB at month 1 (p=0.24) followed with a further improvement by 0.9±2.0 dB (p=0.04) to 25.3±2.3 dB at month 3 compared to baseline. Vision improved by 3.0±8.2 at month 1 (p=0.1) and significantly by 4.5±9.2 letters at month 3 (p=0.03) compared to baseline. There was a reduction in CMT from a baseline of 440±69µm to 402.5±45.6µm (-42.23±55.2µm; p=0.002) at month 1 and 386.6±37.3µm (-58.1±62.9µm, p=0.003) at month 3. Improvement in retinal sensitivity correlated with an improvement in BCVA (r=0.51) at month 3.
Conclusions :
Retinal sensitivity as measured by microperimetry correlated with change in BCVA in this cohort and may be useful in evaluating the recovery of macular function following epiretinal membrane surgery.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.