Twelve-Month Outcomes of the Wavefront-Optimized Photorefractive Keratectomy for High Myopic Correction Compared with Low-to-Moderate Myopia

PURPOSE: To evaluate the 12-months outcomes of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in patients with high myopia (≥ 6.0 diopters, D) compared with low-to-moderate myopia (< 6.0 D). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Records of 46 patients (69 eyes) who underwent PRK for myopic and astigmatic correction between October 2015 and December 2018 were reviewed. High myopic eyes (29 eyes) were compared with low-to-moderate myopic eyes (40 eyes). All surgeries were adjunct with 0.02% mitomycin C intraoperatively. Measured outcomes included postoperative uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), manifest refraction spherical equivalent, corneal haze rate, and any complications. RESULTS: At 12 months post-PRK, 26 eyes (89.7%) in the high myopia and 39 eyes (97.5%) in the low-to-moderate myopia group had UDVA ≥ 20/20, (p=0.30). Average postoperative logMAR UDVA at 12 months was −0.04 (20/18) and −0.11 (20/15) for the high myopia and low-to-moderate myopia groups, respectively. No eyes in either group had residual refractive errors >1 D. No eyes in both groups developed significant corneal haze at month 12. No eyes had a loss of greater than two Snellen lines of CDVA at 12 months post-surgery. The efficacy and safety indices at 12 months post-surgery were not significantly different between groups (1.06±0.26 vs.1.14±0.27, p =0.25 and 1.14±0.27 vs 1.17±0.26, p=0.60 for low-to-moderate myopia vs high myopia groups, respectively). CONCLUSION: PRK with high myopic correction provides excellent refractive outcomes and is safe, compared to those of low-to-moderate myopic correction.