Comparison of Visual Acuity and Higher-Order Aberrations After Femtosecond Lenticule Extraction and Small-Incision Lenticule Extraction

Friday, April 25, 2014
KIOSKS (Boston Convention and Exhibition Center)
Alper Agca, MD Istanbul, Turkey
Dilek Yasa Istanbul, Turkey
Ilker Cankaya, MD, Beyoglu Eye Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
Yusuf Yildirim Istanbul, Turkey
Ercument Bozkurt, Beyoglu Eye Research and Training Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey
Ahmet Demirok, MD, Beyoglu Eye Training and Research Hospital, Beyoglu, Turkey
Omer F. Yilmaz, MD Istanbul, Turkey

Narrative Responses:

Purpose
To compare postoperative visual acuity and higher-order aberrations (HOAs) after femtosecond lenticule extraction (FLEx) and after small incision lenticule extraction.

Methods
Medical records of refractive lenticule extraction patients were retrospectively rewieved. 20 patients were treated with FLEX. A comparable group of 20 SMILE patients were retrospectively identified. Only one eye of each patient was randomly chosen for the study. Visual acuity, subjective manifest refraction and corneal topography before and 6 months after the surgery were analyzed for both groups. Total high order abberations, spherical aberration, coma and trefoil were calculated from topography data over the 4- and 6-mm-diameter central corneal zone.

Results
Mean preoperative SE was -4,03±1,61 in SMILE group and -4,46±1,61 in FLEX group. Mean SE was -0,33±0,25 in SMILE group and -0,31±0,41 in FLEX group 1 year after surgery (p=0,86). In both groups 95% of the patients were within ±1,00 D of the intended correction. %80 of FLEX eyes and % 95 of SMILE eyes had an UDVA of 20/25 or better (p=0,34). Total high order abberations, spherical aberration, coma and trefoil increased postoperatively in both groups. However, there was no statistically significant difference  between the groups preoperatively and postoperatively.

Conclusion
FLEX and SMILE results in comparable refractive results. In addition corneal aberrations induced by different techniques of lenticule extraction seemed similar to each other.