Changes in the Hyperreflective Bands of Outer Retinal Layers after Idiopathic Epiretinal Membrane Surgical Removal

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between the outer retinal hyperreflective bands and visual acuity recovery after idiopathic epiretinal macular membrane (ERM) surgical removal.

Methods: A prospective longitudinal non-comparative study was conducted that included a total of 68 patients with idiopathic ERM, who underwent consecutive 23 G pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) at San Juan University Hospital (Alicante, Spain) from January 2019 to January 2021. All patients underwent a complete preoperative standard ophthalmic examination, including measurement of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) examination. This protocol was repeated at 1 and 3 months after surgery.

Results: Mean preoperative decimal BCVA was 0.30 ± 0.13 and disruption of the first, second, third and fourth outer retinal hyperreflective bands was observed by SD-OCT in 9 (27.9%), 27 (39.7%), 33 (48.5%) and 17 patients (25%), respectively. BCVA improved after ERM peeling at 1 and 3 months in all patients, regardless of the presence of disruption in any hyperreflective band. Significantly larger improvement of BCVA was found at 3 months after surgery in patients not showing disruption of hyperreflective bands 1 and 4 (p = 0.048 and 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: The integrity of the outer retinal hyperreflective bands by SD-OCT in patients with idiopathic ERM is a valuable tool to determine the visual prognosis of the surgical treatment of this condition. A successful recovery of hyperreflective bands 1 and 4 with ERM surgery may be a potential biomarker of the visual improvement achieved due to their important anatomical relation with cone photoreceptors at the foveal level.

Keywords:

• Epiretinal membrane
• optical coherence tomography
• pars plana vitrectomy
• external limiting membrane
• photoreceptors

Disclosure statement

The authors have no proprietary or commercial interest in the medical devices that are involved in this manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author David P Piñero has been supported by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain within the program Ramón y Cajal, RYC-2016-20471.