Incidence of Infectious Keratitis After LASIK

Abstract

Abstract: : Purpose: To report the incidence of postoperative infectious keratitis after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 12,259 eyes of 6,130 patients between the ages of 18 and 81 who underwent LASIK from July 1996 to August 2002. Slit-lamp examination and/or corneal cultures were performed on all eyes with suspected infectious keratitis postoperatively. All patients had at least one month of follow-up. Results: Six eyes developed clinical signs of infectious keratitis (0.05%). There were 4 cases of bacterial keratitis based on clinical or laboratory findings. Three cases were small peripheral infiltrates presenting 7 days, 12 days, and 4 months after LASIK. One case was a corneal ulcer that developed 76 days post-LASIK. Two eyes developed herpetic keratitis 7 months and 22 months after surgery. There were no fungal, atypical mycobacterial, or protozoan organisms isolated. No patient lost more than one line of vision. Conclusions: In this series of consecutive LASIK cases, the incidence of infectious keratitis is extremely low. The only organisms isolated were bacterial and viral, and the visual outcomes were in general good.

Keywords: refractive surgery: complications • refractive surgery: LASIK