Long Term Follow-Up Safety and Effectiveness of Myopia Refractive Surgery

1) Background: Refractive surgery is an increasingly popular procedure for decreasing spectacle or contact lens dependency. The two most common surgical techniques to correct myopia are photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and femtosecond laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (FS-LASIK). This study demonstrates the long-term effectiveness, safety, and predictability of both techniques for the refractive surgery of myopia. (2) Methods: A retrospective non-randomized study was performed. We followed 509 PRK eyes and 310 FS-LASIK surgeries for ten years. Patients were followed-up after 3 months and after 1, 2, 5, and 10 years, gathering data on their uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA). The safety index of both procedures was defined as the quotient between the postoperative BCVA and the preoperative BCVA. We defined a procedure as safe if this quotient was equal to or greater than 1. The effectiveness index was calculated as the quotient between postoperative UCVA divided by the preoperative BCVA. (3) Results: The safety index was higher than 1 (1.09) and an effectiveness index of 0.82 after ten years of surgery in both groups was found. (4) Conclusion: These data demonstrated excellent safety and effectiveness indices for both techniques, although FS-LASIK is a technique with better safety and effectiveness indices than PRK