Incidence of Epiretinal Membrane Formation After Pars Plana Vitrectomy for Giant Retinal Tear-Associated Retinal Detachment.

Objective: To report the incidence of postoperative epiretinal membrane (ERM) formation after primary pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) for giant retinal tear associated retinal detachment (GRT-RD) repair as well as its clinical characteristics and visual outcomes at a level one trauma and tertiary referral academic center.

Patients And Methods: Patients with primary RD repair for GRT-RD at West Virginia University from September 2010 to July 2021 were identified using the ICD-10 codes (H33.031, H33.032, H33.033 and H33.039). Imaging studies including optical coherence tomography (OCT) were manually reviewed pre- and post-operatively for ERM formation after PPV for GRT-RD repair in patients who underwent PPV or combined PPV and scleral buckle (SB). Univariate analysis was performed to analyze clinical factors for ERM formation.

Results: The study included 17 eyes of 16 patients who underwent PPV for GRT-RD. Postoperative ERM was observed in 70.6% (13 of 17 eyes) of the patients. Anatomic success was achieved in all patients. The mean (range) preoperative and final best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) in logMAR units by macula status was 0.19 (0-0.5) and 0.28 (0-0.5) for macula-on and 1.7 (0.5-2.3) and 0.7 (0.2-1.9) for macular-off GRT-RDs. Clinical variables including use of medium-term tamponade with perfluorocarbon liquid (PFCL), cryopexy, endodiathermy, number of tears or total clock hours of tears did not correlate with an increased risk of ERM formation.

Conclusion: Post-vitrectomized eyes for GRT-RD repair have a significantly higher incidence of ERM formation, nearing 70% in our study. Surgeons may consider prophylactic ILM peel at the time of removal of tamponade agents or weigh in ILM peel at the time of primary repair, a more challenging surgical technique in our opinion.