Post eye operation vision. Experience of distortion and epiretinal membrane

[charles555]

I had a trabeculectomy five weeks previously. Still blurry vision but I know this is the norm and a lot has been discussed. My blurriness is clearing very slowly, - so slow to frustrate me but not slow enough to worry doctors - but as my vision slowly improves, I have noticed the distortion of my vision.

Beside blurry, the objects you see with one eye are 30-40% bigger and distorted: a square looks oblong and a round ball looks like a rugby ball, street sign poles look leaning. Doctor says he found an epiretinal membrane which was there before op but somehow started to influence my vision because of the trab op. He is reluctant to talk about epiretinal membrane now as he is more eager to see out the trab op to satisfying conclusion. So Im not sure if epiretinal membrane is the only cause of distortion or not.

I am still worried about the blurriness but distortion is an additional worry. Has anyone experienced distortion of vision after eye op other than blurriness? epiretinal membrane is not much discussed in this forum but I am sure this is causing problem to some people.

[muddledme]

Hello charles555,

Glad to hear that your blurry post op vision is improving, although slowly.

I can imagine the distortion is a worry.

The optitian diagnosed my right eye with an epiretinal membrane on an O.C.T before surgery.

After an implanted Preserflo shunt on that eye ,I also had visual distortion when everything seemed at odd angles. Luckily this slowly resolved after about a week.

The left eye had no visual distortion post op.

18 months after the last op I notice some problems with depth of vision which makes me very wary of steps, but it is no big deal if I am careful.

Apparently these epi retinal membranes become more common after the age of 50 and increase to 35% by 70-75 yrs.

They generally cause few symptoms, but are watched and not treated unless causing problems incuding persistant visual distortion.

The only treatment is Vitrectomy when the vitreous humour ( or jelly) which fills the back of the eye and the membrane is removed. A friend has just had a successful vitrectomy .

I have been told that the membrane will not go away on it's own.

I asked my surgeon if it was possible to remove it when he implanted the shunt but he said it would be too complicated and he did not have experience of vitrectomy surgery.

It seems that many surgical side effects do slowly improve even after many weeks, so I do hope that your eye just needs more time.

I sometimes wonder if my brain has just got used to my post op vision and adapted.

At least we know we have an epi retinal membrane....many people do not , so I always remind anyone examining my vision.

There is quite a lot about this on google, what it is, and which problems may occour.

Best wishes