Study finds pregnancy a contraindication for refractive surgery
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A study investigating the outcomes of LASIK and PRK in women who underwent refractive surgery while unaware of their pregnancy found significantly worse results compared with those who were not pregnant.
“Although corneal refractive surgery is contraindicated during pregnancy, some patients may be unaware that they are pregnant when they undergo surgery. Our aim was to provide doctors and women in this situation with objective data,” Nuria Alonso-Santander, MD, said at the virtual European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons winter meeting.
At Clínica Baviera, an eye hospital group in Spain, a multicenter, retrospective, interventional case series review of patients who were pregnant and underwent LASIK or PRK between 2002 and 2020 was performed. A group of 75 eyes of 75 women who were pregnant was compared with a control group of 150 eyes of 150 women who were not pregnant. The groups were similar in terms of age, preoperative refraction, treatment and follow-up.
Significant differences were found between the groups in terms of efficacy, safety and predictability indexes. In the study group, 8% of women lost two or more lines of uncorrected visual acuity compared with 3% in the control group, and 2.7% lost lines of best corrected visual acuity compared with 0.7% of controls. The predictability of spherical equivalent within ±0.5 D was 69% in the study group and 80% in the control group.
No complications of pregnancy or labor were reported. Similarly, a search of medical records revealed no adverse effects in the infants.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case series on pregnancy and refractive surgery,” Alonso-Santander said.
These findings demonstrated that refractive surgery is a contraindication to refractive surgery.
“We do not recommend performing LASIK or surface ablation on pregnant women,” Alonso-Santander said.
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Alonso-Santander N, et al. Laser in situ keratomileusis and surface ablation in pregnancy. Presented at: European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons winter meeting; Feb. 19-21, 2021 (virtual meeting).
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