Lasik as a Solution for High Hypermetropia

AIM: To evaluate safety and efficacy of Laser in situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) procedure for the correction of high hypermetropia. METHODS: Retrospective study of 160 patients (266 eyes) who underwent LASIK procedure for the correction of hypermetropia between +3.00 and +7.00 diopters(D) and cylinder up to 2.00D from January 2013 and August 2015. All ablations were performed with Wavelight Allegretto Eye-Q400Hzexcimer laser (Alcon, Forth Worth, TX, USA) with aberration free module and were centered on a corneal vertex. All flaps were made with Moria M2 (Moria, Antony, France) mechanical microkeratome (90μm head). Preoperative and postoperative uncorrected and corrected distant visual acuity (UDVA, CDVA), spherical equivalent (SE) and a berrometry for 5mm pupil were measured. Measurements were taken at 1 week, 1,3,6 and 12 months after the surgery. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Postoperative UDVA was lower than preoperative CDVA at 1 week(p=0.001), at 1 month there was no difference (p=0.099), and at 3,6 and 12 months UDVA was better (p<0.0001). Preoperative SE was 4.69±1.20D (+3.75 to +7.50D). At 1 week SE was 0.03±0.67D (-0.50 to +0.63D), while at 1 year regressed to 0.58±0.56D (+0.25 to +0.88D). Sphere shifted from negative values targeted in treatment planning to compensate for regression to positive values. There was significant difference in SE at every time point (p<0.0005). There was a significant increase in coma (p<0.0001), trefoil (p<0.0001, p=0.0006) and spherical aberration (p=0.022, p=0.0052) at 1 week and 1 month postoperatively, without change throughout the rest of follow up. CONCLUSION: LASIK for high hypermetropia showed satisfactory results in postoperative refraction with reasonable regression without significant loss of lines of visual acuity. However, more test are necessary to asses optical quality.