Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine reasonable expectations for uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) after LASIK in a very large sample size.
Methods: :
One-month results from 28,196 LASIK procedures for mild to moderate myopia performed at a UK-based laser center was retrospectively analyzed. All eyes had Intralase femtosecond laser flaps and wavefront-guided treatments with the Visx Star S4 IR laser.
Results: :
Preoperatively, refractive error ranged from -0.00 to -6.00 D of sphere and from -0.00 to -6.00 D of cylinder. At one month postoperative, 90.7% of the eyes were 20/20 or better uncorrected and 72.5% were 20/16 or better. The average improvement in UCVA was 10 lines, which is the equivalent of going from 20/200 to 20/20. Among the 14,078 patients that had both eyes treated, 97.3% achieved binocular UCVA of 20/20 or better and 87.5% achieved 20/16 or better binocularly at one month. The percent of patients dissatisfied with their surgery decreased with better UCVA, from 9.0% of those with worse than 20/25 UCVA to 6.2% of those with 20/25, 1.9% of those with 20/20, 1.3% of those with 20/16, and 1.0% of those with 20/12 or better UCVA.
Conclusions: :
Technical advances such as femtosecond laser flaps, advanced Fourier wavefront analysis, variable spot scanning, iris registration, and custom ablation have continuously improved laser vision correction results. Patients treated with the latest LVC technology can reasonably expect to achieve better than 20/20 UCVA and are more likely to be satisfied with the procedure when this expectation is met.
Keywords: refractive surgery: LASIK • refractive surgery: optical quality