Myopic excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy: an analysis of clinical correlations.

In this study, we examined the correlations among various factors that may affect the results of central photorefractive keratectomy for myopia. Data analyzed from our studies of blind, partially sighted, and normally sighted eyes included patient age, attempted correction, time to re-epithelialization, postoperative corneal clarity, refraction (relative spherical equivalent), and uncorrected visual acuity. We found that larger attempted corrections resulted in less accurate refractions and poorer uncorrected visual acuity. Older patients tended to have better results than younger patients, regardless of the amount of attempted correction. The relationship between the amount of attempted correction and corneal clarity was weak. There was a statistical correlation between corneal clarity scores and uncorrected visual acuity, but the range of corneal clarity scores was small and even the highest scores were probably not in the range that interfered with vision, so the relationship was probably not causal. The rate of epithelial healing did not appear to affect either refractive or visual results, and was not affected by patient age. These findings may be useful in guiding future efforts to improve the results of this new surgical procedure for the correction of refractive error.