To investigate the clinical characteristics of spontaneous separation of idiopathic epiretinal membrane (ERM) patients without any surgical treatment. Methods

Retrospective medical records analysis was performed for patients with spontaneous separation of the idiopathic ERM without treatment. The patients' age, average time until ERM separation, best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), refractive error, intraocular pressure (IOP), optical coherence tomography (OCT) data, central macular thickness (CMT), and the presence of posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) were evaluated and recorded. Results

Twenty-two eyes of 22 patients were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 52.0 ± 8.6 years, and the average time until ERM separation was 14.1 ± 16.2 months. The average BCVA (logMAR) was 0.12 ± 0.12 before separation and improved ( p = 0.032) to 0.07 ± 0.08 after separation. The average CMT before separation was 386.1 ± 63.2 µm, after separation, the average CMT decreased ( p < 0.001) to 299.1 ± 46.7 µm. The differences in IOP and refractive error before and after ERM separation were not statistically significant. Not all patients experienced PVD before ERM separation, however, they all showed PVD after the separation. Conclusions

ERM patients of a relatively young age and without PVD showed spontaneous separation of the ERM and improved visual acuity with PVD, which suggests that ERM could be improved through conservative observation without surgery.