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Preoperative factors predictive of postoperative decimal visual acuity ≥ 1.0 following surgical treatment for idiopathic epiretinal membrane

Authors Kunikata H, Abe T, Jiro Kinukawa, Nishida K

Published 4 February 2011 Volume 2011:5 Pages 147—154

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S15848

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Hiroshi Kunikata1, Toshiaki Abe2, Jiro Kinukawa1, Kohji Nishida1,3
1Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; 2Division of Clinical Cell Therapy, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Osaka University Medical School, Suita, Japan

Purpose: To report the preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and foveal thickness (FT) values that lead to a postoperative decimal BCVA of ≥ 1.0 after surgical removal of an idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM).
Methods: This is a retrospective case series of 73 eyes that underwent surgery for removal of an idiopathic ERM. All eyes had been treated by a single surgeon using a 25-gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy and indocyanine green-assisted internal limiting membrane peel. The BCVA and FT were measured at baseline and 6 months postoperatively.
Results: A postoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 1.0 was obtained in eyes with a preoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 0.3 but not in those with a preoperative decimal BCVA ≤ 0.2. The incidence of obtaining a postoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 1.0 was significantly (P = 0.002) higher in eyes with a preoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 0.5 (50%) than in eyes with a preoperative decimal BCVA < 0.5 (11%). Additionally, a postoperative decimal BCVA of ≥ 1.0 was obtained in 51% of the eyes that had a preoperative FT < 400 µm, compared with only 21% of eyes with a preoperative FT ≥ 400 µm (P = 0.01). The incidence of obtaining a postoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 1.0 was significantly higher in eyes with preoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 0.5 and FT < 400 µm (60%) than in eyes with preoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 0.5 and FT ≥ 400 µm (20%; P = 0.03 ) or preoperative BCVA < 0.5 and FT ≥ 400 µm (7%; P < 0.001).
Conclusions: These findings indicate that eyes with both preoperative BCVA ≥ 0.5 and FT < 400 µm have a significantly better chance of obtaining a postoperative decimal BCVA ≥ 1.0 following idiopathic ERM removal.

Keywords: 25-gauge vitrectomy, optical coherence tomography, epimacular membrane, epiretinal membrane, visual acuity, foveal thickness

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