Will having an epiretinal membrane affect the success of cataract surgery. ?

Definitely: Cataract surgery will make things clearer, with an epiretinal membrane the vision may still be blurry or distorted.

The cataract surgery: Can go perfectly, but the epiretinal membrane can still prevent you from seeing well if it is significant enough. It is sometimes difficult to determine before surgery if your vision problems are from the cataract, membrane, or both. Discuss with your eye doctor what the best course of action might be. Good luck.

ERM & Cataract: PAM (Potential Acuity Meter):can determine if it is just the cataract affecting general vision or the Epiretinal Membran/ERM. If ERM small, might still have 20/20 after. Brightness acuity test (BAT): generally tells us how bad the cataract is. OCT (optical coherence tomography) tells us how significant ERM is. Frustration: still no guarantee what vision will be till done. eyedoc2020@blogspot.com

No and yes: Cataract surgery can be expertly performed and executed when there is an epiretinal membrane present. However, the visual acuity following cataract surgery may be disappointing because the epiretinal membrane is causing the poor vision, and removing the cataract did not make much of a difference.