What is the best treatment for my mom's epiretinal membrane?

Question

Hello doctor,

My mother has been a patient of macular degeneration for the last four years. She was being given eye injections by the ophthalmologist in the left eye eight times and six times in the right eye, but the new doctor stopped giving her injections in the left eye for the past six months, now the doctor has told me that my mom is suffering from epiretinal membrane in the left eye and that if they perform the surgery to remove the layer, the vision will not become any better than one percent. Whose mistake is this?

Is it true that stopping the injections has made her condition worse, or is the surgery too risky? She is driving with one good eye and one bad which is itself a big risk, please advise on what steps should have been taken or should be taken now for her cure? Her right eye is 6/9, but she cannot even see two fingers from a distance of one meter with the left eye.

Kindly let me know what I can do for her? She takes Penicillin only after injections.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Did you ask your doctor the reason for stopping the injection? It must be because the lesion has minimal or no fluid, or not showing any sign of improvement, even with injections, or healing must have already occurred.

In such a case, giving the injection is a personal choice. However, much improvement is not expected with or without injections. Now, an epiretinal membrane may develop for many reasons.

An uncontrolled systemic condition is one of the reasons. But this membrane development will not result in such low vision. That is why much improvement will not occur with any surgery. Her vision must have been around this only, even without a membrane. It is no one's fault.

It is the disease course you need to understand. So need not worry about the left eye.

Take care of the right eye.