Background: Optical coherent tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive technique that has the advantage of imaging and quantitatively analyzing retinal thickness, nerve fiber layer, and optic nerve structures with good reproducibility. With OCT, several studies reported that retinal microstructures are important to the visual prognosis after macula off RRD surgery. According to these studies, integrity of the ellipsoid zone (EZ) and external limiting membrane (ELM) and presence of foveal bulge are significantly correlated with postoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). This study aims to find postoperative factors related to changes of visual acuity after macular-off RRD surgery by analyzing OCT findings.



Methods: 74 patients who were planned to undergo pars plana vitrectomy to repair macula-off rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. After surgical clinical success, patients were divided according to postoperative BCVA at the 6th month after surgery into two groups: Group A (Poor visual acuity <6/60) and Group B (Good visual acuity ≥ 6/60).

Results: At the 1st month after the surgery, BCVA, central macular thickness (CMT), residual subretinal fluid (SRF) and ELM and EZ integrity was significantly associated with the final visual acuity (p=0.002, 0.033, 0.007 and 0.013). At the 3rd month, BCVA, ELM and EZ integrity were associated with the final visual acuity (p=<0.001, 0.011 and 0.001 respectively). At the 6th month, ELM and EZ integrity was associated with the final visual acuity (p=0.002 and <0.001 respectively)

Conclusion: ELM and EZ integrity significantly influenced the final visual acuity at the 6th month after the surgery.