![]() Using extremely small-gauged instruments and special magnification to perform this very delicate surgery, the retina specialist starts by making three microscopic incisions in the white of the eye to access the gel, or vitreous, cavity behind the eye's lens and in front of the retina. Some local anesthesia will be administered around the eye to numb it. In most cases, the procedure in done under local monitored anesthesia, while you are awake. This surgery is usually done in an outpatient surgical center by a retina specialist. (Sometimes additional testing, like fluorescein angiography, is used to determine if other underlying retinal problems have caused the ERM.)Įxperts note that there aren't any medications, like eye drops or nutritional supplements, that will improve ERMs or make them disappear. With your eyes dilated, an OCT imaging device is used to produce a very clear cross-section picture of the ERM. And the sooner, the better because chances for a good result on a new pucker are much better than on one that has existed for some time. ![]() In rare cases, ERMs spontaneously release from the retina, relaxing the “pucker,” and normal vision returns.īut if your vision becomes significantly affected, it may be time to consider surgery - a vitrectomy - to remove the ERM. When to seek helpĪfter an initial growth period, ERMs may become fairly stable, Awh notes, and your doctor can simply monitor them to make sure they don't get worse. Do things like telephone poles or window blinds deviate from a straight line? Is the vision in the open eye noticeably blurry? Check the vision of one eye against that of the other. ![]() To check for this, he suggests closing one eye, and noting if things look out of whack. What you will most likely notice, says Timothy Murray, a retina specialist and past president of ASRS, is a distortion in your vision, sensitivity to light, blurry vision, and/or loss of fine details while reading, and a diminished ability to recognize faces - all of which I experienced. Rarer causes of ERMs can be diabetes, venous occlusive disease, trauma after ocular surgery or inflammation inside the eye. Women and men are affected equally, and in 10 to 20 percent of cases both eyes have some degree of ERMs. Studies have shown that 2 percent of patients over 50, and 20 percent of patients over 75, have some degree of ERMs, according to the ASRS. Or it may be “idiopathic,” meaning its origin is unknown. Or it may simply be due to the aging process. While this can be caused by scarring from the laser repair of a retinal tear, it is “more likely the scarring from the tear itself,” Awh says. “In most eyes that membrane is so thin and so clear that it has no impact on vision,” he notes.īut in a small percentage of eyes, over time, this membrane can thicken and then contract, distorting vision. It's very common for an epiretinal membrane (ERM) to develop, especially as we age, says Carl Awh, a retina specialist and president of the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS). The retina's job is to focus images coming through the front of your eye and convert them into electrical impulses that are then transmitted by your optic nerve to your brain, allowing you to see. Your retina is that very thin layer of light-sensitive nerve tissue that lines the back of your eye and covers the gel (vitreous) inside your eyeball. He told me I had an “epiretinal membrane pucker” - also called cellophane maculopathy or macular pucker - which is a puckering on the retina caused by a fibrous membrane developing over its center, the macula, then contracting. He pointed to a spot on the OCT (ocular coherence tomography) scan of my eye, and said, “See this dip? That is causing your vision distortion in that eye.” En español | After I had a retinal tear repaired, I returned to my retina specialist for a follow-up visit, where I told him that I'd noticed some visual distortion and blurred vision, including a diminished ability to recognize faces - so much so I'd wondered if I might be suffering from face blindness (a condition known as prosopagnosia).
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