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High refractive errors, astigmatism, age are risk factors for LASIK re-treatments
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NEWARK, N.J. — Higher initial refractive errors, astigmatism and an older age are risk factors for LASIK re-treatments, a large-scale study has found.
More than 2,485 eyes of 1,306 patients underwent LASIK at Hackensack University Medical Center for the correction of myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism. Peter Hersh, MD, and colleagues noted all the patients underwent the procedure with an Alcon system. Only those patients for whom re-treatment was necessary were included in the study.
Of the total cohort study, 288 eyes of 233 patients underwent one re-treatment; three eyes of three patients required two re-treatments.
Overall, the 1-year incidence for the re-treatment was 10.5%. The length of time between the initial surgery and the re-treatment averaged around 7 months. Within the first year, 85% of the patients needing re-treatment received them. All but three of the eyes were re-treated with a manual flap lift approach; the remaining three required a repeat microkeratome cut.
Dr. Hersh wrote in the April issue of Ophthalmology that after analyzing the risk factors involved with re-treatment, gender did not play a role. He added, however, that higher initial refractive errors and residual astigmatism coupled with an age greater than 40 were significant factors for re-treatment.