Posterior Corneal Astigmatism Does Not Influence Manifest-Treated Topography-guided LASIK Outcomes

Abstract

To investigate whether the magnitude of posterior corneal astigmatism (PCA) impacts refractive and visual outcomes of primary topography-guided laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and to provide guidance on treating eyes with high PCA. Comparative retrospective analysis of 4,541 consecutive eyes treated with Contoura (Alcon Laboratories, Inc) on the manifest refractive astigmatism. Standard outcomes of the 1,514 eyes with the lowest PCA (first tercile; low PCA group) were compared to the 1,514 eyes with the highest PCA (last tercile; high PCA group). Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess relationships between variables. Preoperatively, 20.9% of eyes presented with PCA of 0.50 diopters (D) or greater. The mean PCA was 0.18 ± 0.07 D in eyes with low PCA, and 0.50 ± 0.11 D in eyes with high PCA. An equivalent number of eyes achieved a cumulative postoperative unilateral uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/20 in both the low PCA and high PCA groups (95.3% vs 94.7%; P = .4489). The efficacy index of both low and high PCA eyes was identical (0.99 ± 0.06 vs 0.99 ± 0.08; P = .3192), as was the safety index (1.00 ± 0.02 vs 1.00 ± 0.03; P = .0110). The magnitude of preoperative PCA was weakly correlated with postoperative refractive astigmatism (R = 0.1323), but not with postoperative defocus equivalent (R = -0.0414) or spherical equivalent (R = -0.0128). PCA does not negatively impact the outcomes of topography-guided LASIK targeting the manifest refraction, having identical accuracy, efficacy, and safety in eyes with both low and high PCA. There is no scientific basis to measure and consider PCA in topography-guided LASIK planning software or nomograms if the excimer laser treatment input targets the manifest refraction. [J Refract Surg. 2022;38(12):780-790.].