This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Study suggests quicker epithelial healing, less pain with PRK than butterfly LASEK
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Re-epithelialization time was slightly shorter and pain scores tended to be lower after PRK than after butterfly LASEK in a prospective study comparing the two laser refractive surgery techniques.
"The re-epithelialization time was strongly associated with the duration of surgery in both techniques," the authors said. "A similar reduction of Schirmer test values was observed up to 1 year postoperatively in both groups."
Vinícius C. Ghanem, MD, and colleagues randomly assigned 102 eyes of 51 patients to undergo PRK in one eye and butterfly LASEK in the fellow eye. All patients were followed for 1 year. Study results were published in the June issue of Journal of Refractive Surgery.
Re-epithelialization time averaged 4.35 days in the PRK group and 4.75 days in the butterfly LASEK group (P < .002).
Pain scores and ocular discomfort were not statistically different between groups, although the investigators observed a trend toward lower pain levels with PRK (3.31) than butterfly LASEK (4.43), according to the study.
At 1 year, Schirmer test values were significantly reduced from preoperative levels with both PRK (23.6 vs. 19.4; P < .002) and butterfly LASEK (22.4 vs. 18.9; P = .01); however, no significant differences were found between the two groups at any time.