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Monthly LASIK volume continues steady decline: ISRS survey
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CHICAGO – The percentage of surgeons performing at least 75 LASIK procedures per month has declined steadily since 2001, according to results of an annual survey.
Richard J. Duffey, MD, OSN Refractive Surgery Board Member, presented results of the U.S. Trends in Refractive Surgery: 2012 International Society of Refractive Surgery Survey.
Richard J. Duffey
“It’s truly the alphabet soup of refractive surgery,” Duffey said during Refractive Subspecialty Day preceding the joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology.
This sixteenth survey is the fourth conducted online; 376 of 1,150 ISRS members opened the email survey and 127 responded, Duffey said. U.S. members only were surveyed.
Survey results showed that 86% of respondents had performed LASIK and 88% had done surface ablation; 79% had implanted toric IOLs and 71% had implanted presbyopic IOLs. Toric and presbyopic IOLs were included in the survey for the first time, Duffey said.
“Seventy to 80% of us are doing the premium IOL procedures,” he said.
Results showed that 9% of respondents performed more than 75 LASIK procedures monthly; the percentage was the same as in the 2011 survey.
“We arbitrarily decided 15 or 16 years ago that 75 cases per month was kind of high volume,” Duffey said. “You can see that for LASIK procedures, that has dropped from 27% at that volume down to 9% over the last 11 or 12 years. We peaked in 2001 and it continues to decline in the U.S.”
LASIK was the preferred procedure for a 30-year-old, 10 D myope among 28% of respondents; phakic IOLS were favored by 41% and surface ablation was preferred by 17%.
“Most of us are still going to do laser vision correction,” Duffey said.
Ten percent of surgeons reported having undergone LASIK.
Disclosure: Duffey has no relevant financial interests.