Quality of life drastically improved by LASIK

Femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK significantly improves refractive error-related quality of life (QOL) in myopic patients, claims a study in the Journal of Refractive Surgery.

Dr Alexandra Meidani et al., Center of Health Services Research, Dept of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics Medical School, University of Athen, Athens, Greece, used the Quality of Life Impact of Refractive Correction (QIRC) questionnaire to assess QOL in 190 myopic patients.

Of the patients included in the investigation, 95 underwent LASIK with femtosecond laser flap creation and ablation. The Rasch analysis was used to score the questionnaire and validity was evaluated by internal consistency reliability, repeatability by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland-Altman limits of agreement.

Preoperatively the total QIRC score was a mean of 38.9±5.7. This improved to 53.7±5.1 postoperatively. The QIRC score was greater for contact lens wearers compared to spectacle wearers. Inter-item correlations ranged from 0.32 to 0.79 and repeatability was significantly high with Bland-Altman limits of agreement at −6.72 to +5.41.