Purpose: We sought to determine the incidence of macular epiretinal membrane formation in eyes treated for retinal breaks after three different modalities of treatment: laser photocoagulation, cryotherapy, or both.
Methods: We reviewed the charts of 262 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of retinal tears and included 205 patients who had more than six months of follow-up.
Results: One hundred ninety-five patients were treated. One hundred seventy of these patients had retinal breaks in one eye and 25 patients had breaks in both eyes, for a total of 220 treated eyes. Cryopexy was applied in 125 eyes, laser retinopexy in 73 eyes, and both modalities in 22 eyes. Macular epiretinal membranes developed in a total of 26 eyes: 12 in the cryopexy group, ten in the laser-treated group, and four in the dual modality group. No statistically significant difference, at a level of P < or = .01, was seen in the rate of epiretinal membrane formation between the different treatment modalities. No statistically significant difference, at a level of P < or = .01, was seen in the rate of epiretinal membrane formation in the presence or absence of vitreous hemorrhage or in the type of precedent retinal break.
Conclusions: After treatment of retinal breaks with laser photocoagulation and cryotherapy, no statistically significant difference in the incidence of macular epiretinal membrane formation was demonstrated.