Purpose
To compare the outcomes of treatment with LASIK in eyes cataloged as moderate astigmatism versus those with high astigmatism.
Methods
Retrospective study. A random sample from the service of Cornea and Refractive surgery of 56 patients were analyzed. The data collected was sphere, cylinder, spherical equivalent, uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), and best corrected visual acuity (BCVA). Astigmatism was defined as moderate for eyes with a cylinder ≥ 1.5 and ≤2.75 D, while high astigmatism was ≥3.00 D. Snellen visual acuity was converted to LogMAR for statistical analysis.
Results
A total of 82 eyes of 56 patients were analyzed with 41 eyes categorized as moderate astigmatism and 41 as high astigmatism. The mean age of the sample was 28.5 years. Mean follow up 2.96 months (1-6 months). The mean preoperative cylinder was -2.1 and -4.2 for moderate and high astigmatism respectively. Mean preoperative spherical equivalent for moderate astigmatism was -3.4, and -2.1 for high astigmatism; this was reduced postoperatively to 0.08 and -0.55 respectively. Most patients in the high astigmatism group were compound myopic (41.5 %) and mixed (39 %), while most moderate astigmatism were compound hyperopic (73 %) (Table 1). Thirty and 28 eyes achieved UCVA ≥20/20, 11 and 12 eyes reached UCVA ≤20/ 25 and ≥20 /40 in the high and moderate astigmatism groups respectively (Table 2). In 7 and in 3 eyes of the high and moderate astigmatism groups respectively a line of BCVA was improved, while in either group was lost. No statistical difference was observed between the groups of moderate and high astigmatism for the BCVA (p=0.121) and UCVA (p=0.469) variables. No postoperative complications were observed in either group.
Conclusions
Treatment with LASIK in patients with high astigmatism and moderate astigmatism showed no difference in the postoperative results after a follow-up period of 1 to 6 months.
Keywords: 683 refractive surgery: LASIK •
428 astigmatism •
479 cornea: clinical science