Outcomes of epi-LASIK for the correction of high myopia and myopic astigmatism after more than 1 year.

PURPOSE: To present the clinical results of epi-LASIK in a high myopia and myopic astigmatic population followed for more than 1 year.

METHODS

This retrospective study comprised 67 eyes of 52 patients who underwent epi-LASIK for the correction of high myopia and myopic astigmatism. Epi-LASIK was performed with an automatically rotational epikeratome (KM-5000D, Wuxi Kangming Medical Device Corp., Wuxi, China) and the MEL80 (Carl Zeiss Meditec, Jena, Germany) excimer laser. The postoperative symptom, epithelial flap, vision, refraction and haze formation were investigated. The astigmatic change was calculated by the Alpins vector analysis method.

RESULTS

The follow-up period was 13.27 months. Mean preoperative spherical equivalent (SE) refraction and cylinder were -13.39 diopters (D) and -2.02 D. An integrated epithelial sheet with a diameter of about 8-9 mm was made in 65 (97.01%) eyes leaving a superior hinge of approximately 2-4 mm. The mean epithelial healing time was 5.55 days. More than 1 year after the treatment, no eye lost more than 1 line of best spectacle-corrected visual acuity. The mean SE and cylinder were -2.25 and -0.79 D. The mean astigmatism correction index was 1.06. The index of success of 0.51 reflected a 49% success in achieving cylinder correction. The change induced by the laser ablation at the intended axis of cylinder reduction was 93%. At the same interval, 7.46% of eyes had trace haze and others were clear. Haze did not affect the visual acuity in any eye.

CONCLUSIONS

Epi-LASIK appeared to be effective and safe in the treatment of high myopia and myopic astigmatism with the advantages of having lower postoperative pain and satisfactory refractive and visual outcome postoperatively.