Abstract
Purpose :
To assess the morphological and functional outcomes of treatment of epiretinal membrane (ERM) with pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) and membrane peeling (MP) in patients who have coexisting dry age related macular degeneration (AMD).
Methods :
A retrospective case series was performed of patients with dry AMD in both eyes who underwent PPV with MP for ERM. Clinical data and optical coherence tomography (OCT) findings were reviewed. Primary outcome measures of visual acuity and central foveal thickness (CFT) were measured preoperatively, 6 months following surgery and at last available date of follow up. Pairwise t-tests were used to compare preoperative and postoperative measures. Exclusion criteria included prior history of ocular surgery other than cataract extraction, neovascular AMD, retinal detachment, diabetic eye disease, trauma, or other retinal disease.
Results :
A total 44 eyes of 22 patients with dry AMD met inclusion criteria and were followed for an average of 2.5 years with a mean age of 80 years, and most were female (73%). Preoperatively, the mean largest druse size was 360 μm in case eyes and 358 μm in control eyes (P=0.957). In eyes that underwent PPV/MP (n=22), there was a significant decrease in the mean CFT in vitrectomized eyes 6 months post-procedure (-146 μm, P <0.001). Visual acuity improved in post-vitrectomy eyes at 6 months on average from 0.75 to 0.58 logMAR decrease (P=0.07). Post-operatively, there was no significant difference in size of largest druse between case and control eyes (P=0.244).
Conclusions :
In this pilot study, individuals with dry AMD who underwent PPV and MP for ERM had a significant improvement in central foveal thickness and a trend towards improved visual acuity at 6 months postoperatively.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2017 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Baltimore, MD, May 7-11, 2017.