Custom surface ablation comparable to LASIK

NEW YORK — An analysis of military personnel who underwent refractive surgery found customized surface ablation results to be comparable to LASIK results over the short term, said Steven C. Schallhorn, MD.

“We’ve never randomized patients to surface ablation or LASIK,” he told attendees at the Ocular Surgery News Symposium: Cataract, Glaucoma & Refractive Surgery. “Only patients who were OK with the idea were included.” As a result, 50 patients from the Naval base in San Diego and the Air Force base in San Antonio were enrolled. Those who received advanced surface ablation had a mean age of 32 years; those undergoing LASIK had a mean age of 33 years. All patients were similar in terms of sphere, cylinder and manifest spherical equivalent, Dr. Schallhorn said. At 3 months postop, 92% of patients who underwent custom surface ablation and 98% of patients who underwent LASIK were at 20/20 or better.

“At 6 months, there was no nomogram difference between PRK and LASIK in manifest spherical equivalent,” said Dr. Schallhorn. On average, both groups had a postop uncorrected visual acuity equal to their preop best corrected visual acuity.

“About the same boost is required for PRK as LASIK for the nomogram; the Food and Drug Administration says 4.5%, and we found about 5%,” he said.