LASIK is safe even in high-risk patients

Long-term follow-up has demonstrated that LASIK is a safe procedure even in high risk, highly myopic eyes, according to Patrick Condon and colleagues from the Waterford Eye Specialists, Dublin, Ireland and the Gordon Binder Vision Centre, USA.

The researchers carried out a postoperative review of 140 eyes of 80 patients who had each undergone LASIK with an ACS microkeratome and broad beam lasers with ablation rate of 12 microns per diopter and intraoperative subtraction pachymetry.

The review showed that, despite the greater risk of developing ectasia after LASIK in highly myopic patients, this normally only occurs in patients with a thicker than anticipated flap resulting in an unacceptable RSB of 120 microns. Therefore, the researchers concluded that LASIK can be considered a safe procedure.