This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Some refractive procedures carry higher retinal risks, study finds

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Certain refractive procedures for myopia pose a greater risk of postoperative retinal problems than other refractive procedures, a large cohort study suggests. Phakic IOLs created the highest risk for retinal detachment in the study, followed by LASIK and then photorefractive keratectomy.

José Ma. Ruiz-Moreno, MD, and colleagues at the Miguel Hernández University School of Medicine evaluated 9,239 eyes of 5,099 patients who underwent refractive procedures for the correction of myopia and who had a minimum of 12 months follow-up. Stable myopia, a normal anterior segment with an anterior chamber depth greater than 3.4 mm, endothelial cell density greater than 2250 cell/mm2, and corneal thickness sufficient to remain greater than 370 µm postoperatively were among the inclusion criteria. Patients were excluded if they had previous corneal disease, glaucoma or a history of ocular trauma.

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) was performed on 5,936 eyes with a mean spherical equivalent of –4.71 D. LASIK was performed on 3,009 eyes with a mean spherical equivalent of –13.5 D. Anterior chamber phakic IOL implantation was performed in 294 eyes with a mean spherical equivalent refraction of –18.5 D. Follow-up was at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months and once yearly thereafter.

Retinal detachment occurred at a mean of 53.6 months after PRK in nine eyes (0.15%), 24.6 months after LASIK in 11 eyes (0.36%) and 20.5 months after phakic IOL implantation in 12 eyes (4%). Choroidal neovascularization occurred in 10 eyes that had undergone LASIK (0.33%), in seven with a phakic IOL (2.38%) and in one that underwent PRK (0.01%).

The study is published in the September/October issue of Journal of Refractive Surgery.