Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: To evaluate the impact of the wound healing process after laser refractive surgery on higher order aberrations in the human eye. Methods: Patients were seen before, 1 week after, and 12 months after LASIK surgery and visual acuity, manifest refraction and aberrations were assessed. Aberrations were measured using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and presented in the Zernike standard set. Aberrations were evaluated for lower order aberrations (sphere, cylinder), spherical aberration, and higher order aberrations. Higher order aberrations included all Zernike terms a6 through a11 and a13 through a27, which includes coma and trefoil. Statistical analysis was done for a 6mm pupil size. Results: 85 patients were seen pre- and 1 week post-op; 52 patients were seen 12 months post-op. While LASIK surgery corrects lower order aberrations it introduces spherical and higher order aberrations. This increase is statistically significant (p < 0.0001). The largest increase was found for spherical aberrations from 0.06+/-0.13 microns pre-op to 0.32+/-0.22 microns at 1 week post-op (6mm pupil size). Wound healing does not alter lower order or spherical aberrations (p = 0.36). A slight decrease in coma and trefoil can be noted during wound healing, but it is not statistically significant. Higher order aberrations experience a decrease from 0.57+/-0.28 to 0.49+/-0.25 microns, which is statistically significant (p = 0.04). During wound healing, an increase in visual acuity from 0.10 to 0.06 logMar can be noted (p = 0.15). Conclusions: While refractive surgery corrects lower order aberrations, it introduces spherical and higher order aberrations. The wound healing process does not change lower order or spherical aberrations. Coma, trefoil and higher order aberrations decrease throughout the wound healing process, but only the decrease in higher order aberrations was found to be statistically significant.
Keywords: optical properties • refractive surgery: LASIK