Epiretinal Membrane Surgery Using Intraoperative OCT-Guided Membrane Removal in the DISCOVER Study versus Conventional Membrane Removal

Purpose: To provide a comparative assessment of clinical outcomes between patients undergoing intra-operative OCT (iOCT) and conventional surgery for pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) with epiretinal membrane (ERM) peel. Design: Case-control retrospective, comparative assessment. Participants: Patients undergoing PPV with membrane peel for ERM with eyes pooled from the prospective Determination of Feasibility of Intraoperative Spectral Domain Microscope Combined/Integrated OCT Visualization During En Face Retinal and Ophthalmic Surgery (DISCOVER) iOCT study and eyes undergoing conventional ERM surgery without iOCT. Methods: Visual acuity and OCT assessment before ERM surgery and at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up after standard small-gauge PPV with iOCT feedback (iOCT DISCOVER group) or PPV with compulsory internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling (conventional group). Visual acuity, central subfield thickness (CST), reoperation rate, and ERM recurrence were determined by record review and post hoc assessment of clinical OCTs after ERM peel. Main Outcome Measures: Visual acuity and ERM recurrence. Results: A total of 262 eyes were included. Visual acuity (VA) improved 11.9 letters in the iOCT group (P < 0.0001) and 12.1 letters in the conventional group (P < 0.0001) at 12 months after ERM surgery. Visual acuity improvement did not differ between the iOCT and conventional groups at 1, 3, 6, or 12 months after surgery (P > 0.05 for each time point). Preoperative mean CST decreased in the iOCT group (P < 0.0001) and conventional group (P < 0.0001) with no difference between groups in CST reduction at 12 months (P = 0.36). No reoperations or visually significant recurrent ERMs occurred in either cohort. Conclusions: Intraoperative OCT-guided ERM removal without mandated ILM peeling provided similar VA and anatomic results to conventional ILM peeling for ERM. Future randomized prospective studies are needed to assess fully the possible role of iOCT in ERM surgery and to evaluate the potential impact of nonfoveal ERM persistence or recurrence in comparison with conventional surgery. (C) 2021 by the American Academy of Ophthalmology