Successful small-incision lenticule extraction for myopia

Small-incision lenticule extraction for moderate to high myopia provides high rates of patient satisfaction, refractive predictability and is a safe procedure.

Dr Anders Vestergaard et al., Department of Ophthalmology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark, conducted a prospective clinical study on 144 patients with moderate to high myopia.

Small-incision lenticule extraction was performed with a femtosecond laser and manually extracted without flap creation. Each patient was treated and assessed for three months. One randomly selected eye of each patient was used for the statistical analyses.

Mean preoperative spherical equivalent was −7.18 D ± 1.57. In 40% of eyes with emmetropia as target refraction the uncorrected distance visual acuity was 0.1 logMAR or less one day postoperatively. This increased to 73% at three months postoperatively.

Mean corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) significantly improved from -0.01 preoperatively to -0.03 three months postoperatively. Of the eyes studied, six lost one line of CDVA after three months and none of the eyes lost two lines or more of CDVA.

Achieved mean refraction was −0.09 ± 0.45 D from the attempted refraction. Out of the eyes included, 77% were within ±0.50 D and 95% were within ±1.00 D. As for patient satisfaction, 95% of the patients recommended the procedure to others.

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Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.