Visual and refractive outcomes of photorefractive keratectomy in hyperopia and hyperopic-astigmatism: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the Visual and Refractive outcomes of Photorefractive Keratectomy(PRK) in Patients with Hyperopia and Hyperopic-astigmatism

Methods

This meta-analysis followed the PRISMA statement. Literature search of databases including PubMed, web of science, Scopus, Medline, Cochrane library and Google-Scholar was done to find relevant published articles about outcomes of PRK surgery for hyperopic and compound hyperopic-astigmatism. The search was conducted with no time or language restriction; and was updated until 31th December 2023. Open Meta Analyst software was used for data analysis. The combined effect of continuous data was presented by mean difference and 95 % confidence interval (CI).

RESULTS

A total of 750 eyes from 481 patients (49.5 % female and 50.5 % male) were analyzed. The postoperative improvement in UCVA(uncorrected visual acuity), SE(spherical equivalent) and cylindrical power in these samples were statistically significant(P = 0.001). The overall incidence of corneal haze was 32.5 %(95 % CI:[26.5 %, 38.4 %]).

CONCLUSIONS

The Visual and Refractive outcomes of PRK in Patients with Hyperopia and Hyperopic-astigmatism are satisfactory, but its 32.5 % haze incidence is significantly higher than in myopic PRK and Trans-PRK(trans-epithelial PRK), raising safety concerns. Further research is needed to reduce haze and enhance outcomes.