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Wavy print lines reading, post ERM surgery. Will this go away?
I am 2 months post ERM surgery. Not knowing what to expect as improvement.
Use the search feature and archives to read the many posts about patients that have had ERM stripping. The surgery is so unique and individualistic it is not possible to generalize. It will probably take 4-6 months to know for sure but by 8 weeks about 75% of the healing should take place. Important to know while the surgery often makes much better it usually does not make vision normal. Also if you have your natural lens the surgery almost always causes a cataract to develop and grow.
Use the search feature and archives there are many helpful posts by patients who have had these types of surgery.
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I am 10 months post ERM surgery, still seeing wavy lines with both eyes. My retinal surgeon is saying due a cataract surgery (mine is 2+) and vitrectomy (I have large black floater) in the good eye, to strengthen it so it will take over more. My surgeon can due both at the same time. What do you think?
blurred vision is typical of cataract but not distortion which is suggestive of residual macular problem. So cataract surgery will likely help blur but not distortion. Doing a cataract removal, IOL insertion and vitrectomy is a lot of surgery to be done at one time and I would suggest you get a second opinion from another group of ophthalmologists about whether to do those surgeries in one stage or two.
thank you for this response. My retinal surgeon would do an anterior vitrectomy and cataract surgery (2+) in the good eye, the one that did not have the erm surgery. He says this has no greater risk than cataract surgery alone. Will this make my distortion worse or better? and is there any way of knowing this.
As a general rule I would disagree with that statement. A cataract/IOL is much less risky than doing a vitrectomy at the same time. I would strongly suggest you get a 2nd and 3rd opinion before embarking on that course of action.
Addendum: If you have no macular pathology and your other eye is normal except for a cataract then cataract surgery/IOL surgery alone should stand the best chance or restoring normal vision.
I have no macular pathology in my other right eye. It has a slight cataract 2+. I am seeing distortion out of both eyes. The good eye is not taking over for the erm eye which is post op 11 months. It should be better by now. Have you heard that it takes longer? Are you saying that a vitrectomy (anterior) for the floater is not advised? Will the floater no be more prominent after cataract surgery? My retinal surgeon thinks this is minor as it is not the same vitrectomy as was done with the erm surgery. Thank you, you have been most helpful.
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I personally would not choose to have a Floater Only Vitrectomy (FOV) as an elective procedure. It doesn't seem to me that a slight cataract should be causing significant distortion, since the one I have in my right eye could be termed slight and I don't experience any distortion issues in daytime lighting conditions from it.
I do not have distortion in my good eye which has the 2+ mild cataract. However, as a result of the ERM surgery on my left eye, I have wavy distortion, such that when I look with both eyes straight lines are wavy. Could this have been caused by the surgery itself?
Everyone has some reduced vision or distorted vision prior to ERM surgery or the surgery would not be done. 99% of the time its better after surgery but often not completely gone. It’s major surgery and risks include loss of eye (infection, bleeding, total retinal detachment) or the vision/distortion being worse after the surgery.
It should get better, albeit slowly it seems at times. It's been a year and half since I had a ERM procedure and mine took about a year to improve significantly.
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Thank you for the reply. Did you see the wavy print as well? After a year, did everything seem normal again?
You can "Google" Amsler Grid testing. read about it, print out an amsler grid and be able to follow better your level of distortion.
Wavy print...yes most definitely before and immediately after the ERM procedure. I would say now though my vision in the affected eye is about 95% of what it was before surgery a year and half ago. Just having a cataract removed (which developed fairly quickly after the ERM) this week helps immensely. Looking at an Amsler grid, I still have a minuscule amount of waviness in spots.
Some waviness always always exists important is less than prior to surgery and is no longer progressive.
I have done the test on the Amsler Grid, very wavy in the operated eye. I am 3 months post op. Since I did not know what was happening before I saw the eye doctor, I never did the Amsler grid prior to surgery. Print is wavy with both eyes open as well if I do not use reading glasses. My head just does not feel normal. I thought it was something else, but the ophthalmologist says this is from the eye problem. Are they just not learning how to work together given the condition? Can vision get worse even after surgery? My scan is not flattened out yet, whatever that means and I do not have the normal dip for the foveal depression. this site has been useful but I am worried. In addition, they did my cataract surgery at the same time. I think there are differing opinions on that.
I have cystoid macular edema following my vitrectomy/ERM surgery which I assume causes the slight residual waviness I experience when reading lines of print or looking at an Amsler grid. I'll ask about the OCT progression the next time I see my ophthalmologist in late May.
I didn't know cataract surgery was performed at the same time as a vitrectomy until I saw it in this forum.
I didn't know cataract surgery was performed at the same time as a vitrectomy until I saw it in this forum.
Cataract surgery is not always performed at the same time. If the lens is too cataractous for the retina surgery he/she may remove it. This is usually called a lensectomy. The posterior capsule is removed and the anterior capsule is left in place so that at a later date an IOL may be put in the eye by an anterior segment surgeon. Some retina surgeons feel comfortable putting an IOL in at the time the vitrectomy is done.
This makes sense to me now, if the lens was occluded by an advanced cataract the retinal surgeon might have issues seeing through it to effectively perform a ERM procedure.
By being skillful enough to put in an IOL he/she saved you a second operation. Most retina surgeons don't feel comfortable doing that.
In my case the cataract in my left eye, in which I underwent the ERM procedure, wasn't advanced enough at the time to warrant removal. Also my retinal surgeon, whom I credit with an excellent outcome, said later he typically does not perform cataract surgery and instead leaves that to an ophthalmologist who specializes in such. You're right though about not having to go through two separate surgeries being preferable when possible. However I also liked having a year and half before having cataract surgery, since it gave the vision in my operative eye time to completely stabilize following the ERM procedure before settling on my chosen IOL.
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