wavefront-guided laser assisted subepithelial keratectomy in low myopia, myopic astigmatism and high myopia

purpose: to compare the safety, efficacy, predictability, stability and complications of wavefront-guided laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (lasek) in low myopia, myopic astigmatism and high myopia correction. methods: in his retrospective study, 416 eyes were divided to 3 groups: 159 eyes with low myopia (lm) and mean refractive spherical equivalent (mrse) of -3.68±1.33 (sd) diopter (d); 161 eyes with myopic astigmatism (ma) and mrse of -5.99±2.24 d and mean cylinder of 2.41±1.07 d; and 96 eyes with high myopia (hm) and mrse of -7.41±0.80d. after an epithelial flap creation, a wavefront-based excimer laser ablation was performed. safety, efficacy, predictability, and stability were evaluated at day 10, months 2, 6 and 12 postoperatively. results: the mrse were -0.36±0.31 d in lm group, 0.15±0.41 d in ma group and 0.58±0.68 d in hm group. the uncorrected visual acuity (ucva) were 20/20 in 90.60% of patients in lm group, 78.90% in ma group and 67% in hm group. efficacy indices were 0.98, 1.04 and 0.92 in lm, ma and hm groups, respectively. safety indices were 1.00, 1.07 and 1.05 in lm, ma and hm respectively. five eyes (3.1%) in the lm group improved 1 line. forty-four eyes (27.3%) in ma gained 1-3 lines and 19.2 % of hm group gained 1-2 lines of bscva. only 2 eyes in lm group developed corneal haze. there were not significant statistically differences in efficacy and safety indices between three groups. conclusion: wavefront-guided lasek is an effective and safe procedure for the treatment of lm, ma, and hm. although predictability, efficacy and safety indices improved in myopic astigmatism.