Objective To evaluate the anatomical and functional results of internal limiting membrane (ILM) peeling during pars plana vitrectomy for fibrovascular proliferation (FVP) in diabetic retinopathy. Methods The study was a prospective comparative case series in design. Patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy for mild to moderate diabetic FVP were divided into either Group 1: vitrectomy only, or Group 2: further ILM peeling in the macular area. Best-corrected visual acuity, fundus examination, and optical coherence tomography (OCT) were conducted at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. Results There were 26 eyes of 25 patients in Group 1 (non-ILM peeling) and 23 eyes of 22 patients in Group 2 (ILM peeling). At 6 months postoperatively, OCT- identifiable epiretinal membrane (ERM) was found in 10 of 26 eyes (38.5%) in Group 1 and 0 of 23 eyes in Group 2 (P = 0. 001) and six eyes (23.1%) in Group 1 developed biomicroscopic ERM, whereas no patients in Group 2 had ERM ( P = 0.02) at 6 months. OCT identifiable ERM correlated significantly with central macular thickness (r = -0.58, P