ABSTRACT
In order to get a good visual outcome following excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy(PRK) the centration of ablation is very important. In this study, the ablation center of excimer laser PRK using VISX 20/20 B(R) with VisionKeyTM(VISX, Inc. Santa Clara, CA) was evaluated by using corneal topography. Corneal topography was performed before operation and one month after operation to 190 eyes of 123 patients. The location and distance of center of ablation from center of the entrance pupil were calculated by using EyeSys Corneal Analysis System(R) with pupil-finding software(EyeSys Laboratories, Inc. Houston, TX). Supero-nasal displacement of ablation center occurred in 84 eyes(44%) after excimer laser PRK. The mean distance was 0.33 +/- 0.21mm(range: 0.02~1.36mm). The distance less than 0.5mm was found in 157 eyes(83%) and that between 0.5mm and 0.75mm was found in 26 eyes(14%). The decentering amount following excimer laser PRK was not depending on laterality(OD vs. OS), sex, age, amount of attempted correction(6D down vs. 6D up), type of software(ver 3.20 vs. 4.01) or type of procedure(PRK vs. PARK). In contrast, the second eye receiving excimer laser PRK showed a better centration of ablation than the first eye. And the centration results improved with surgeon's experience in the most recent 50 eyes(0.28 +/- 0.16mm). However, there was no relation between amount of decentration and visual improvement. In this study, it was found that decentering of ablation center less than 0.75mm did not influence the visual outcome in excimer laser PRK.