Comparison of corneal and total ocular aberrations before and after myopic LASIK.

PURPOSE To assess the compensation of total ocular and corneal wavefront aberrations after conventional myopic LASIK. METHODS This study comprised 57 eyes of 57 patients. Total and corneal aberrations were measured preoperatively and 3 months postoperatively using the OPD-Scan (NIDEK Co Ltd) aberrometer. Total and corneal aberrations root-mean-square (RMS) was calculated out to the 6th Zernike order for a 6.0-mm pupil diameter. The percentage increase postoperatively was defined by the ratio of RMS pre- and postoperatively for each corneal and total eye group. The compensation between corneal and internal aberrations for a given aberration group was defined as: (corneal aberration group RMS - total eye aberration group RMS)/corneal aberration group RMS. RESULTS Postoperatively, higher order aberrations increased by a factor of 1.77+/-1.26 (total) and 2.47+/-2.25 (corneal) (P<.05). Coma aberration increased by a factor of 2.43+/-2.61 (total) and 2.56+/-2.66 (corneal). Spherical aberration increased by a factor of 1.46+/-1.83 (total) and 2.64+/-2.24 (corneal). The values of the ratio of compensation did not change significantly before and after LASIK for individual aberrations (P>.05). CONCLUSIONS Although myopic LASIK induced significant corneal aberrations, the level of partial compensation of corneal aberrations by internal structures remained unchanged. These results suggest that the previously described emmetropization that is effective during development may also be effective with acquired variations in corneal shape.