Correction of myopic astigmatism with small incision lenticule extraction.

PURPOSE To evaluate the outcome after small incision refractive lenticule extraction (SMILE) in patients with myopic astigmatism. METHODS Seven hundred seventy-five eyes from 403 patients with myopia treated with SMILE for a cylinder of 0.75 diopters (D) or more were identified from patient records. Six hundred sixty-nine eyes were defined as receiving low (< 2.5 D) and 106 eyes as receiving high (⩾ 2.5 D) astigmatic correction. Patients were examined before and 3 months after surgery. SMILE was performed with a Visumax femtosecond laser (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany). Preoperative and postoperative refractions were converted to polar values. Induced torsion and achieved corrections of sphere and cylinder were determined. RESULTS In low astigmatism, the mean preoperative spherical equivalent (SE) was -7.57 ±1.67 D and the cylinder was -1.22 ± 0.49 D. Three months after surgery, SE was -0.19 ± 0.48 D from target, astigmatism was 0.17 ± 0.42 D undercorrected, and a small but significant torsion of the cylinder axis corresponding to 0.05 ± 0.37 D was found. The astigmatic undercorrection measured 13% per diopter of attempted correction. In high astigmatism, preoperative SE was -5.91 ± 2.56 D and cylinder was -3.22 ± 0.67 D. After surgery, the average astigmatic undercorrection was 0.59 ± 0.65 D, equivalent to 16% per diopter of attempted correction. No undercorrection in SE occurred and no torsion was found. CONCLUSIONS SMILE in myopic astigmatism offers predictable correction of SE, but a small, significant undercorrection of the astigmatic error. The undercorrection increases with the attempted treatment. Only very little rotation of the cylinder axis was found.