Immediate and short term visual recovery after SmartSurf(ACE) photorefractive keratectomy

PURPOSE: To investigate immediate and short-term visual recovery in a large cohort of 2093 myopic eyes (with or without astigmatism) treated with SmartSurf(ACE) procedure, a combination of Transepithelial Photo Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) and Smart Pulse Technology (SPT, SCHWIND eye-tech-solutions GmbH, Kleinostheim, Germany). METHODS: In this retrospective case series, post-operative outcomes were evaluated immediately after the surgery (Day 0), at day 1 and 3 months postoperatively, after myopic SmartSurf(ACE) treatment with mean pre-operative spherical equivalent -4.65 ± 2.53D and range from −16.13D to −0.13D. In all cases, pre and postoperative standard examinations were performed. The analysis evaluated preoperative Corrected and Uncorrected Distance Visual Acuity (CDVA and UDVA, respectively), and postoperative UDVA, monocularly and binocularly, immediately after the surgery, at day 1 and 3 month follow up. RESULTS: Sixty-two percent eyes achieved monocular UDVA 20/40 or better immediately after the surgery, while 82% patients achieved binocular UDVA 20/32 or better immediately after the surgery. At 3-month postoperatively, monocular UDVA 20/25 or better was achieved in 94% eyes. Treated eyes achieved immediately after the surgery or by the next day mean UDVA 20/41 ± 8. UDVA improved significantly from Day 1 to 3-months follow up (p < 0.0001 for both OS and OD) to mean UDVA 20/21 ± 5 (equal to preoperative CDVA 20/21 ± 8). CONCLUSION: Immediate and short-term visual recovery after SmartSurf(ACE) PRK in our large cohort was rapid, providing functional binocular UDVA immediately after the surgery.