Objective To evaluate the clinical outcomes of idiopathic macular epiretinal membrane (IMEM) by 23G vitrectomy with or without internal limiting membrane peeling. Methods A total of 40 eyes in 40 patients diagnosed as IMEM underwent 23G pars plana three-port vitrectomy (23G PPV). The macular ERM alone was removed in 20 eyes (non-ILM peeling group). Both ERM and ILM peeling were performed in another 20 eyes (ILM peeling group). All patients underwent removal of ERM with assistance of triamcinolone acetonide. For patients who underwent ILM peeling, indocyanine green dye was used to stain the ILM. ILM was peeled off up to the marginal of macular vessels arch. The patients in ILM peeling group and non-ILM peeling group had postsurgical follow-up for (15.85±3.79) months and (16.45±3.72) months respectively. There were no significant differences in gender, age, OD/OS, preoperative best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), preoperative central macular thickness (CMT), preoperative total macular volume (TMV) and follow-up time between the two groups (P > 0.05). Intraoperative or postoperative complication was recorded during the follow-up period. At the final visit, the differences in BCVA, CMT and TMV between the two groups were analyzed, so did the correlations between BCVA and CMT or TMV in each group at the same time. Results There was no recurrence of an ERM or severe complications, such as retinal detachment and endophthalmitis in either group. The mean BCVA of ILM peeling group and non-ILM peeling group was 0.53±0.27 and 0.54±0.26 respectively at the final visit. Postoperative BCVA improved significantly in both groups with significant difference (t=5.035, 4.964; P < 0.05). The was no difference of postoperative BCVA between two groups (t=0.176, P > 0.05). The mean CMT was (343.55±48.74) μm and (311.70±42.48) μm, and the mean TMV was (7.78±0.40) mm³ and (7.88±0.43) mm³. CMT (t=9.508, 8.549) and TMV (t=11.098、15.372) revealed a significant decrease in both groups with significant difference (P < 0.05).The postoperative CMT in the ILM peeling group was significantly higher than that in the non-ILM peeling group (t=-2.203, P < 0.05). No difference was found between the two groups in terms of TMV (t=0.755, P > 0.05). Furthermore, no correlation was observed between postoperative BCVA and CMT (r=0.244, 0.266; P > 0.05) or TMV (r=-0.096, 0.157; P > 0.05). Conclusions 23G PPV combined with or without ILM peeling is an efficient and safe treatment for IMEM. ILM peeling appears to have similar effect on the long-term visual outcomes comparing with non-ILM peeling, combined with much thicker postoperative CMT.

Citation： WangHong, ZhangPing, ChenFeng-e. Clinical outcomes of idiopathic macular epiretinal membrane removal by 23G vitrectomy with or without internal limiting membrane peeling. Chinese Journal of Ocular Fundus Diseases, 2014, 30(4): 361-365. doi: 10.3760/cma.j.issn.1005-1015.2014.04.007 Copy

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