Comparing Early Outcomes of PRK With 2 Refractive Lasers
Purpose
Rapid recovery of functional vision after surgery is important in patient acceptance of PRK. We aimed to compare the early outcomes of patients undergoing Trans-epi (TE) PRK with two laser platforms, Wavelight Allegretto (WA) and Schwind Amaris (SA).
Methods
Retrospective Comparative Case Series . 54 consecutive cases of TE PRK with the SA laser were each matched with two AW cases of the closest prescription. Outcomes of uncorrected visual acuities (UCVA) and best spectacle corrected visual acuities (BSCVA) were analyzed at 1, 3 and 6 months. Sub-study with 37 cases with 1 month follow-up, after improving SA beam profile.
Results
At one month, cases achieved 20/20 UCVA were 12 of 54 (22%) eyes treated with SA PRK compared to 63 of 108 (58%) with WA PRK (p=0.0285). 20/20 BSCVA were 20 of 54 (37%) eyes with SA PRK compared to 80 of 108 (74%) WA PRK. 20/40 or better UCVA were 50 of 54 (93%) eyes compared to 106 of 108 (98%) eyes relatively. After SA beam profile improvement, 35 of 37 (95%) eyes also achieved 20/40 UCVA or better at 1 month.
Conclusion
TE PRK WA achieves faster recovery of functional vision, 58%, than the TE PRK SA, only 22%, achieving 20/20 UCVA at 1 month (p≤0.05). At 3 months, UCVA are similar. After improving SA beam profile, SA TE PRK demonstrated excellent result with 95% achieving 20/40 UCVA at 1 month.