[Long-term safety and stability of refractive surgeries in myopia]

Chah HT, Hyon JY, Kim MG, Kim TI, Kim JH, Kim JY, Chung SH, Na KS, Byun YS, Kim JK, Cho EY, Kim EK, Kim JH, Lee JY, Kim SK, Choi JE, Lee EJ, Lee NR
Record ID 32014000423
Korean
Authors' recommendations: Retrospective chart reviews from 2,638 patients (5,109 eyes) who received refractive surgeries by LASIK or surface ablation such as LASEK and PRK at six university and local hospitals between 2002 and 2004 were analyzed. By reviewing the surgical results three years after the selected surgery, refractive surgeries were found to be effective in visual correction by showing a correction of vision of more than 0.5 in 95% of LASIK patients and more than 97% of the patients who received surface ablation surgeries like LASEK and PRK. However, myopic regression (1) showing a reduction of the correctional effect at one year and three years after the surgery respectively reached 4.5% and 8% for LASIK, and 8.6% and 13.4% for the surface ablation. Several factors may contribute to myopic regression including the refractive power (expressed in diopters of a sphere) of the eyes before surgery, the intraocular pressure and corneal thickness, along with the differences caused by the selection of different surgical methods. In addition, 26 patients (34 eyes, 0.67%) required re-surgery, and keratoecasia was observed in a single case, but there was no case of loss of visual acuity among the surgeries. Therefore, a complete pre-examination for causes that could have a long-term effect on the surgery should be made before the surgery is performed. Along with the retrospective chart review, the telephone survey results showed that for 302 people that had refractive surgery more than 5 years ago, about 20% complained of worsening of nighttime discomfort and symptoms of dry eye after the surgery. Overall, refractive surgery can be seen as relatively safe surgery, but since self-reporting symptoms such as nighttime discomfort and symptoms of dry eye can occur, it is important to provide an explanation for the occurrence of such symptoms and acquire informed consent before the surgery. No severe complications including loss of vision occurred after receiving the refractive surgery, but since not all refractive surgeries are expected to be effective, surgeries have to be performed after thorough pre-surgical examinations for the causes that may have an effect on the results of the surgery. It is also important to provide information about the benefits and harm, including possible complications and discomfort that can appear after surgery, and to acquire the patient's consent before the surgery.
Details
Project Status: Completed
Year Published: 2011
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: South Korea
MeSH Terms
  • Surgical Procedures, Operative
Contact
Organisation Name: National Evidence-based healthcare Collaborating Agency
Contact Address: National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), 3~5F Health and Welfare Social Administration B/D, 400 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea.
Contact Name: int@neca.re.kr
Contact Email: int@neca.re.kr
Copyright: National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA)
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.