Three-year clinical observation of laser-assisted subepithelial keratomileusis on thin cornea

Abstract

ObJective To evaluate the safety and efficacy of laser-assisted subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) on thin cornea for three years.Methods Included 108 eyes (55 patients) with a preoperative central comeal thickness (CCT) thinner than 500 micron that had undergone LASEK to correct their myopia and that had three years of follow-up.The stability of the visual acuity (VA),regression of refraction,keratometry,the safety and efficacy index were evaluated.Results Preoperative CCT was 485.22±10.84 micron (ranged 462 to 496 micron).Preoperative spherical equivalent was-4.6241.71 diopters (D) (ranged-1.5 to 8.5 D).The uncorrected VA of all eyes was higher than 0.8 at the examination of three months,the efficacy index was 0.99±0.12,and the safety index was 1.01±0.08.Three years after the surgery,3 eyes (2.7％) showed regression within 0.5D,2 eyes (1.9％) with corneal haze grade 0.5,the efficacy index was 0.96±0.08,and the safety index was 0.98±0.08.The topography did not show signs of corneal ectasia.Conclusions LASEK seems to be safe and effective to correct myopia in corneas thinner than 500 micron,with stable visual and refractive outcomes in a 3-year follow-up. Key words: Thin cornea ; Laser-assisted subepithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) ;