Macular Pucker or Epiretinal Membrane

The tissue with which you see is called the retina. It lines the back wall of the eye like wallpaper. Sometime some natural pigment cells join together on the surface of the retina and change themselves into scar-like tissue.

If you have ever noticed when you heal from a cut, the edges of the wound pucker or pull together as it heals.

The cells on the surface of the retina that now act like scar tissue also pucker or pull, causing wrinkling in the retina tissue.

Since the retina is like film in a camera, this wrinkling causes distortion in vision or an actual decrease in vision, just like any picture taken with a camera with distorted film will take a bad picture.

Glasses will not help this condition in the same way putting an expensive lens on a camera with wrinkled film will still not make a perfect picture.

Unfortunately, there are no special glasses, drops, pills, exercises, or even laser treatment that can remove the scar-like cells. Only a surgery, called a vitrectomy with surgical removal of the tissue can get rid of the scar-like tissue.

Fortunately, most people who have macular pucker have only a slight decrease in their sight that does not worsen. However, a few people will have significant vision loss from this condition and surgery may be an option for them.

For more information or to schedule an appointment please contact us at 315-464-5252.