PEELING OF THE INTERNAL LIMITING MEMBRANE IN SURGERY ON RHEGMATOGENOUS RETINAL DETACHMENT (PRELIMINARY RESULTS)

The aim of our study was to compare the effectiveness of the results of surgical treatment of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment after endovitreal intervention in groups of patients who had undergone of ILM removal and those who had not been administered such a procedure. Of 20 patients, 10 patients underwent endovitreal intervention with removal of the ILM (the first group) and in 10 patients ILM was preserved (second group). In all cases the operation was completed with tamponade of vitreal cavity with the sude of silicone oil. All patients were examined preoperatively and were followed up at the interval of 1, 3, and 6 months after the operation. In the early postoperative period complete adherence of the retina was observe in all cases, but in the second group recurrence of retinal detachment was revealed in 1 case (10%) 4 months after removal of silicone oil. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) failed to reveal epiretinal fibrosis, and cystic macular edema in patients of the first group. However, in patients of the second group OCT demonstrated epiretinal fibrosis (30%) and cystoid macular edema (70%) 6 months later. Taking into consideration all the data we can conclude that ILM removal in the surgical treatment of patients with retinal detachment is an effective method and can be recommended.

epiretinal fibrosis, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, internal limiting membrane, cystic macular edema, optical coherence tomography