The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Patricio G. Schlottmann, MD: Hello again. Here we are in Ushuaia, Argentina, for our national retina meeting. Today we are with Andrea Govetto, MD, PhD, a world-famous surgeon and retina specialist. He’s going to be talking to us about the epiretinal membrane—and apparently, we should call this disease not “epi,” but a full retina thickness membrane. Give me your thoughts, Andrea, and a pleasure to have you here.

Andrea Govetto, MD, PhD: Thank you, Patricio. The pleasure is mine; it’s always good to be here in Argentina.

I think that over the last few years, we are switching from the concept of a disease laying over the retinal surface to one that actually involves the full thickness of the retina. Because we know from histology and clinic that the Müller cells proliferate, go out from the retina, pass through the internal limiting membrane (ILM) and proliferate over the surface. So basically, the epiretinal membrane (ERM), what we see is an epiretinal sheet of tissue, but in reality, the disease extends over the thickness of the retina up to the external limiting membrane. This has a lot of implication in our clinical practice. It’s a much more complex disease than what we used to think. So when we approach ERM surgery, we have many more variable to consider compared to the past.

Patricio G. Schlottmann, MD: Andrea, thank you very much for that. It’s a pleasure to have experts of your level and Alessandro Feo, MD,’s level and all the many guests that we have at our meeting coming all the way down to Ushuaia to enlighten us with more and better information. Thank you very much for coming here.

Dr. Govetto: No, thank you, Patricio. This is a wonderful place, and the hospitality is simply amazing. Thank you so much.

Dr. Schlottmann: Our pleasure. RP