Correction of high myopia with foldable Artiflex Phakic intraocular lenses: 1 year follow-up results.

To assess the one year results of Artiflex Phakic intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in the treatment of high myopia. In this non-random interventional study, myopic patients with spherical equivalent worse than -5.0 diopters (D) who were not eligible for laser surgery were assessed. All patients had refraction, uncorrected and best corrected visual acuity tests (UCVA and BCVA), endothelial cell count (ECC), and measurement of the anterior chamber depth and intraocular pressure before surgery and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. Main outcome measures of this study were refractive stability, refractive predictability, safety, and efficacy after implanting Artiflex IOLs. We studied 53 eyes of 20 female and 8 male patients. The mean preoperative spherical equivalent was -10.22±3.02 D which reached -0.69±1.08 D one year after surgery (P<0.001). On the last follow-up visit, 75% of the eyes were within +0.5 D of emmetropia, 2 eyes had lost one line of BCVA, 18.75% had gained one line and 31.25% had gained 2 or more lines of BCVA. Others showed no change in BCVA. At one year after surgery, 72.2% of the eyes had 20/25 vision or better. The safety and efficacy indices were 1.16 and 1.05, respectively. ECC showed 3.04% decrease (P=0.176). In cases where laser surgery is not an option for myopic patients, use of Artiflex IOLs can have good results with acceptable safety and efficacy.