Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine the retinal changes in myopic patients who have undergone LASIK, four years after surgery.
Methods: :
200 eyes from 100 myopic patients were examined with binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy with scleral depression and biomicroscopy with Goldman’s 67° mirror. Mean spherical equivalent was –7.75D (range –2.50 to –12.25D). All eyes were examined before surgery and 1 week, 1, 3, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months after bilateral simultaneous LASIK.
Results: :
Before surgery, the ophthalmic features found were: 78 eyes with no peripheral changes, 56 eyes with lattice degeneration (8 snowflakes associate and 3 snailtracks associate), 10 eyes had white without pressure, 46 oral chorioretinal degenerations, 8 had round holes (treated before surgery with laser photocoagulation in this cases before the surgery) and 2 with peripheral retinal detachment (treated 1 year before surgery with retinopexy). Four years after surgery, 8 eyes presented small peripheral holes, 3 eyes presented lattice degeneration, and 3 eyes presented retinal detachment.
Conclusions: :
Although retinal detachment and intraretinal hemorrhage have been described as complications of LASIK, our data show that LASIK procedure appears to be safe to the retina. The association between retinal detachment and previous LASIK would appear to reflect the predisposition of myopic patients to retinal detachment.
Keywords: retina • refractive surgery: complications • retinal degenerations: hereditary