Refractive Lenticule Extraction: Visual Outcomes, Surgical Technique, and Adverse Events After 2-Year Practice
Narrative Responses:
Purpose
To report the visual outcomes, and to describe the surgical technique and the management of adverse events which can happen during and after a refractive lenticule extraction on 300 eyes.
Methods
An all-in-one femtosecond laser refractive surgery was performed on 300 eyes to treat myopia with or without low myopic astigmatism. The patient’s age ranged from 20 to 52 years old and the pre operative sphere ranged from -1.50 D to 10.00 D with no cylinder up to 1.50 D. The femtosecond laser was used to create an intrastromal lenticule which was manually dissected and removed through a 2,6 to 3,5 millimeters incision. All the per-operative and post-operative adverse events were reported. The patients were followed up at 1 day, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months after surgery
Results
3 months after surgery 92% of patients have raised a 20/25 Uncorrected Distance Visual Acuity (UDVA) or better and the Mean Refraction Spherical Equivalent (MRSE) was -0,26 +/- 0,52. The per operative adverse events consisted in suctions released (1,4%) and plan dissection difficulties (0,9%). The post operative’s undesired events were epithelial cells remaining in the interface (0,9%) and corneal ulcers on the incision at one day (9%) , with no long-term incidence on the visual outcome measures.
Conclusion
The refractive lenticule extraction proportion is growing in the treatment for myopia. The visual outcomes and safety results are satisfying. There are few adverse events easy to manage. After 2 years experience, the standardization of the lenticule precoded data and the surgical procedure reduces the risk of their occurrence.