Abstract
Purpose :
Regarding clinical outcomes related to presence intraretinal fluid (IRF) in idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM), some conflicting results were reported. IRF is not infrequent before and after surgery for ERM, and persisting preoperative IRF would be compounding bias for interpreting the impacts of postoperative IRF. Herein, this study was conducted to investigate incidence and clinical implications of the perioperative IRF observed on optical coherence tomography in ERM patients comprehensively by classifying IRF into preoperative IRF and postoperative new IRF.
Methods :
The medical records of patients who underwent vitrectomy for idiopathic ERM between Jan 2014 and Jan 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The rate of IRF was analyzed before operation and at postoperative 1, 3 and 6 months. Various parameters including age, sex, baseline visual acuity, central subfield macular thickness (CSMT), lens status and surgical factors were evaluated to find a correlation to IRF. The effect of IRF on visual acuity was analyzed.
Results :
One hundred and seventy eyes of 170 patients were included in this study. Fifty-one eyes of 51 patients (30.0%) had preoperative IRF, and new IRF developed in 49 eyes (28.8%). Seventy eyes (41.2%) did not show any IRF during the study period. At baseline, IRF (-) group had better visual acuity than other two groups. Visual acuity improved significantly after surgery in all three groups. At postoperative 6 months, there was no difference in visual acuity between IRF (-) and new IRF groups, and preoperative IRF group had significantly lower visual acuity than other two groups.
Conclusions :
The IRF associated with ERM was frequently observed before and after surgery, but did not prevent postoperative improvement of vision. Preoperative IRF was related to lower postoperative vision.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.