Macular appearance after diabetic vitrectomy for fibrovascular proliferation: an optical coherence tomography study

Purpose: To investigate morphological variations in the macular area with optical coherence tomography (OCT) after vitrectomy for diabetic fibrovascular proliferation. Methods: We reviewed 108 cases using OCT 7-15 months after vitrectomy. Of these, 32 received OCT within 3 months postoperatively. Morphological variations were categorized and correlated with visual outcome. Results: Only 24 cases (21.4%) had no obvious abnormalities. The most frequent findings were epiretinal membrane (52.8%), macular thickening (37.0%) and macular cysts (28.7%). Multivariate regression showed that diffuse macular thickening, loss of foveal depression and diffuse retinal thinning were significantly associated with poor visual acuity. Sequential OCT (< 3 and >= 7 months) revealed that epiretinal membrane and oedema outside of fovea changed significantly between two examinations. Conclusion: OCT may identify diverse morphological changes in the macular area after diabetic vitrectomy for fibrovascular proliferation. Macular appearance may change over time, and certain types of morphological changes may be associated with poor visual function.