The effect of refractive surgery on blur thresholds

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to measure blur thresholds before and after refractive surgery. METHODS: In this prospective cohort study conducted in a tertiary eye hospital in South India. Blur thresholds were measured for 30 young adult myopic patients 1 month prior to and after refractive surgery. Patients were asked to report three stages of blur, namely Detectable Blur (DB), Bothersome Blur (BB), and Non-resolvable Blur (NB). Blur was created by adding plus lenses (in steps of 0.12D) over their optimal subjective refraction. The blur judgments were made both monocularly and binocularly when looking through a 3 mm artificial pupil at one line above the best-corrected visual acuity. RESULTS: A total of 30 participants were included in this study (mean age = 25.5 ± 3.8 (20–36) years; 77% female). The mean binocular preoperative blur of this group was: DB = 0.39 ± 0.26D, BB = 0.74 ± 0.28D and NB = 1.04 ± 0.42D. The corresponding mean binocular blur one-month post-operatively was DB = 0.46 ± 0.28D, BB = 0.83 ± 0.35D, and NB = 1.21 ± 0.44D. Although there was a marginal increase in the blur thresholds postoperatively, the difference was not statistically significant (DB: P = 0.320; BB: P = 0.229; NB: P = 0.054). CONCLUSION: All three blur thresholds showed an insignificant minimal increase at 1 month post-operatively suggesting that patients adapt to the induced blur following refractive surgery. A longer follow up would reveal how the adaptation to blur would change with time.