photorefractive keratectomy with mitomycin-c for high myopia: three year follow-up results

photorefractive keratectomy (prk) is a safe and effective surgical keratorefractive technique which is done with the application of mitomycin-c (mmc) in cases of high myopia to prevent the formation of corneal haze this study was conducted to evaluate 3-year visual acuity and quality outcomes of prk-mmc in high myopia. this before-after study was conducted on 20 individuals (40 eyes) with myopia more than 6.0 diopter (d). visual acuity and quality indices were evaluated before and three years after the procedure and their stability was examined between the 1 st and 3 rd years. at 3 years after surgery, mean uncorrected visual acuity was 0.03±0.06 in the logarithm of minimum angle of resolution (logmar) unit which showed a significant improvement when compared to baseline ( p <0.001) and means best corrected visual acuity was 0.03±0.06 logmar, which showed no significant difference ( p =0.730). manifest refraction spherical equivalent (mrse) at 3 years (-0.12±0.2d) was significantly decreased when compared to baseline ( p <0.001), but it did not change significantly after the 1 st year and was stable ( p =0.368). mean coma and spherical aberration 3 years postoperatively were -0.54±0.26 µm and 0.46±0.19 µm, respectively, and neither parameter showed significant differences when compared to baseline ( p <0.001). no significant change was found in mesopic contrast sensitivity. the long-term results of this study showed that prk-mmc could be regarded an effective, safe, and stable procedure in patients with myopia more than 6.0 d.