CLINICAL-RESULTS OF PHOTOREFRACTIVE KERATECTOMY - PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF 57 EYES

The authors report their personal experience of Photo-Refractive Kerat ectomy (PRK) with an Excimer Laser based on the study of 57 sighted ey es, 24 with more than six months and 11 with more than one year of fol low-up. The initial myopia ranged from -1 to -13 D with a spherical av erage equivalent of -6,36 D. The photo-ablations, performed with the E xcimer of the Summit Company, ranged from 3.7 to 5 mm of diameter and 16 to 76 mu in depth. Results are reported overall and for sub-groups of myopia (A less-than-or-equal-to -3 D, -3 D < B less-than-or-equal-t o -7 D, -7 D, < C). They were satisfactory since at one year 45 % of e yes obtained a visual acuity without correction greater-than-or-equal- to 5/10 and 64 % of eyes were within one dioptre of emmetropia ; stabi lity of refraction from six months to one year is close to 80 % ; safe ty was good since no patient has lost a line of best spectacle correct ed visual acuity at one year and we only found one case of haze at 1 without visual losts. These encouraging results lead the authors to p ursue their study and to include new patients to obtain larger groups in order to establish statistically signifiant differences for paramet ers such as age, sex, myopia, keratometry, depth and optical zone of p hoto-ablation.