PHOTOREFRACTIVE KERATECTOMY FOR HYPEROPIA AND APHAKIA WITH A SCANNINGSPOT EXCIMER-LASER

OBJECTIVE: To study the safety, efficacy, predictability, and stabilit y of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) for hyperopia and aphakia. METH ODS: Fifteen eyes of 15 patients (mean age, 33 +/- 5.95 yrs) were enro lled in the study and divided into three groups. The first group was c omprised of six eyes that had hyperopia ranging from +1.75 to +4.75 D; the second group had seven hyperopic eyes ranging from +5.00 to +9.75 D; the third group included two eyes of two aphakic patients. All eye s had PRK with a. 193 nm argon fluoride excimer laser (Chiron-Technola s, Keracor 116) with a 10 Hz repetition rate and a fluence of 120 mJ/c m(2). The total follow-up time in all eyes was 12 months. RESULTS: In the lower hyperopia group, 0% eyes were within +/-0.50 D and 66% (N=4) of eyes were within +/-1.00 D of emmetropia with the other two eyes b etween +1.00 and +2.00 D at 1 year after PRK. In the higher hyperopia group, all eyes had at least +3.00 D of hyperopia at 1 year. In the ap hakic group, both eyes achieved less than 50% of the target correct io n of +10.00 D at 1 year, Final uncorrected visual acuity ranged from 2 0/20 to 20/30 in the lower hyperopia group, 20/30 to 20/50 in the high er hyperopia group, and count fingers in the aphakic group. CONCLUSION S: PRK is a relatively safe, stable, and effective procedure with reas onably good predictability for eyes with less than +5.00 D of baseline hyperopia, and poor predictability for eyes with more than +5.00 D of baseline hyperopia. PRK is ineffective in the correction of aphakia.