The Effect of Internal Limiting Membrane Peeling on Idiopathic Epiretinal Membrane Surgery, With a Review of the Literature

Abstract

The rate of recurrent ERM and need for repeat ERM surgery is lower in eyes where the ILM is removed with the ERM, whereas BCVA and CMT were similar with or without ILM removal. Complete ILM removal around the macula should be considered for the treatment of eyes with idiopathic ERMs to reduce the incidence of ERM recurrences.

Internal limiting membrane peeling or not: a systematic review and meta-analysis of idiopathic macular pucker surgery

“…The heterogeneity of a difference in CMT at the final follow-up was effectively decreased after excluding the study,5 I 2 changed from 55% to 0%. The heterogeneity of the difference in ERM recurrence was effectively decreased after excluding the study,26 30 I 2 changed from 43% to 0%.…”

“…Ten included studies were retrospective cohort studies,5 7 20–25 29 30 one was prospective cohort study26 and two were RCTs 27 28…”

“…There are some disagreements between our review and this paper. (1) Retrospective cohort studies, prospective cohort studies and RCTs were identified and included in our meta-analysis (13 studies, 1142 participants) but only retrospective cohort studies (8 studies, 418 participants) in Liu et al ,40 and in our review, we included some studies recently published 29 30. (2) Subgroup analyses were conducted to find the differences between non-randomised studies and RCTs.…”

The Combination of Trypan Blue and Brilliant Blue G-Assisted Vitrectomy for Macular Pucker: Histopathological Findings

“…ILM removal has been shown to be beneficial in terms of final visual outcome and reduction of ERM recurrence [6][7][8][9]. Gandorfer et al [22] demonstrated that the ERM removal alone did not lead to a complete separation of the fibrocellular tissue from the macula.…”

“…Nowadays, ERM peeling is the gold standard technique in macular pucker surgery leading to good visual and anatomical outcomes in the majority of cases. Nevertheless, visual acuity improvement is rarely complete, and an ERM recurrence rate of 21% has been reported [8][9][10]. The unsatisfactory improvement of visual acuity and the recurrence of ERM seem to be correlated with an incomplete removal of the ERM [11,12].…”