AIM: To study the changes of choroidal thickness and the relationship between visual function and choroidal thickness before and after idiopathic epiretinal membrane surgery.

METHODS: From January 2016 to December 2017, 30 patients(30 eyes)with idiopathic macular membrane who underwent surgical treatment in our hospital were selected to clinical study. All patients underwent TSV25G PPV with membrane and ILM peeling, patients were followed up by best corrected visual acuity(BCVA)and subfoveal choroidal thickness(SFCT)in preoperative and postoperative 1wk, 1mo and 3mo. We performed statistical analyses using SPSS22.0, for the evaluation of BCVA and SFCT, we compared the mean differences of preoperative and postoperative measurements. On the other hand, we estimated the correction relationship between BCVA and SFCT.

RESULTS: The BCVA at 3mo after operation was significantly higher than that before operation(P=0.011). We found a significant correlation between preoperative and postoperative 3mo BCVA(r=0.610, P<0.01), postoperative 1wk,1mo, 3mo showed no significant difference with preoperative SFCT(P=0.999). We found no significant correlation between BCVA and SFCT.

CONCLUSION: There was no significant change in choroid thickness after surgery, and also no significant correlation between visual function and choroid thickness.