In the present study we analyzed the leading diseases causing epiretinal membrane and compared the prognosis after epiretinal membrane peeling.

We enrolled 158 (160 eyes) patients diagnosed with epiretinal membrane who underwent epiretinal membrane peeling from January 2005 to January 2014. The medical records including age, underlying ocular disease, and pre-operative symptoms of patients from Chonbuk National University Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Additionally, we evaluated the changes in central macular thickness and visual acuity after the epiretinal membrane peeling.

Idiopathic epiretinal membrane was the most common type of disease (44.4%, 71/160). The causes of secondary epiretinal membrane were diabetic retinopathy (20.6%, 33/160), retinal tear, and retinal hole (18.1%, 29/160). Other causes were post retinal detachment surgery, traumatic epiretinal membrane, retinal vein occlusion and uveitis; 6.9% (11/160), 4.4% (7/160), 3.8% (6/160), and 1.9% (3/160), respectively. The changes in central macular thickness after surgery did not differ significantly between the idiopathic epiretinal membrane and secondary epiretinal membrane patients after adjusting for age ( p = 0.958, based on analysis of variance (ANOVA). Additionally, the visual acuity did not differ significantly after the surgery even after adjusting for age ( p = 0.118, analysis of covariance [ANCOVA]).

Various ocular diseases can be the leading causes of epiretinal membrane, but the leading disease does not affect the degree of central macular thickness changes after surgery or change the prognosis of post-surgical visual acuity.