Purpose:

To compare the visual and refractive results and in vivo confocal microscopy findings of patients treated with PRK and LASEK in their fellow eyes.

Methods:

The charts of first consecutive 212 patients that underwent LASEK were reviewed retrospectively. In patients where alcohol assisted epithelial removal failed to create a regular epithelial flap, the procedure was converted to PRK by scraping the residual epithelium using a beaver blade. The patients operated with PRK in their one eye and Lasek in their fellow eye are included in the study. All procedures were carried out using Nidek EC CXII excimer laser system. The corneal morphological differences were evaluated with in vivo confocal microscopy (Nidek Confoscan 3) at the last visit of the patients.

Results:

34 eyes of 17 patients were included in our study. Mean follow-up time was 15.9±11 months. The mean preoperative spheric equivalent (SE) were -5.16 ± 2.5 diopters (D) for LASEK and -5.58 ± 4.3 D for PRK (p=0,31). The mean postoperative SE at third month was -0.66 ± 0.75 for LASEK and -0.44 ± 0.94 for PRK (p=0,41). The mean postoperative UCVA at third month was 0.82 ± 0.2 for LASEK and 0.7 ± 0.27 for PRK (p=0,09). The mean postoperative SE at the last visit was -0.75 ± 0.78 for LASEK and -0.56 ± 0.71 for PRK (p=0.43). The mean postoperative UCVA at the last visit was 0.94 ± 0.29 for LASEK and 0,93 ± 0,39 for PRK (p=0.86). There was statistically no difference in patients which were evaluated with in vivo confocal microscopy.

Conclusion:

Failure in the preparation of alcohol assisted epithelial flep in LASEK surgery does not effect long-term visual and refractive results and corneal morphology.

Keywords: PRK, LASEK, Confocal microscopy