Laser vision correction for patients with atypical topography of cornea, LASIK vs. PRK: A review

Purpose: To search evidence and determine whether PRK (Photo Refractive Keratectomy) or LASIK (Laser in Situ Keratomileusis) produce a better outcome of laser vision correction for patients with atypical topography of cornea. Setting: Electronic search of laser vision correction related studies on Cochrane Library, Medline and PubMed. Method: The search was conducted over Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed and Medline using the key words of refractive laser surgery, PRK, LASIK, Atypical topography, cornea ectasia and Keratoconus from 1980 to 2012. Boolean operators were used to search in electronic data bases of related studies. The combining words used here were And, OR. Result: The best corrected vision decreased for those eyes with atypical topography that were treated with either PRK or LASIK. However, in the comparison of the outcomes of vision and ectasia, PRK outperformed LASIK. Conclusion: There is possible risk of developing corneal ectasia in those patients who desire laser vision correction with atypical topographic cornea. PRK may be a safer procedure when compare to LASIK for those patients.