Central photorefractive keratectomy for myopia. Partially sighted and normally sighted eyes.

Ten partially sighted and 19 normally sighted eyes underwent excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy for the correction of myopia. Nine of the partially sighted and 17 of the normally sighted eyes had 12 months of follow-up. Epithelial healing was complete in all eyes by day 6. None of the eyes had recurrent erosions, infections, or other medical complications. An increase in corneal haze after surgery was followed by a slow trend toward clearing. Average uncorrected visual acuity in the 7 normally sighted eyes with attempted corrections of 5 diopters (D) or less was 20/40 from month 2 on; the eyes with greater than 5 D attempted corrections had an average of 20/80--at month 2, which declined to 20/200--by month 6. Best spectacle-corrected visual acuity was within +/- 1 Snellen line of preoperative values in 14 of the normally sighted eyes, improved 2 or more lines in 2 eyes, and worsened two or more lines in two eyes. Hard contact lens overcorrection restored all of the two-line loss in 1 eye and 1 line of the 3-line loss in the other. Refraction and keratometry indicated corneal flattening without induced astigmatism.