Comparison of Refractive Outcomes of Broad Beam and Flying Spot Excimer Laser after Photorefractive Keratectomy

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To assess the refractive outcomes in photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) of two eximer lasers Broad beam and Flying spot laser. METHODS: We compared the refractive outcomes of 74 eyes (group I) treated with a VISX 20/20(excimer laser (VISX Inc. USA) using broad beam laser with those of 96 eyes (group II) treated with a Technolas 217 C-Lasik(TM) (Bausch and Lomb, USA) using flying spot laser. Each patients had been followed up for more than 6 months after surgery. RESULTS: Corneal astigmatism at preoperation were 1.25 +/- 0.62D in group I and 1.03 +/- 0.51D in group II and at postoperative 6 months, decreased to 1.12 +/- 0.53D in group I and 0.60 +/- 0.83D in group II. Manifest refraction were outside +/- 1D of spherical lens or 0.5 D of cylinder lens in 23.6 % in group I and 13.5% in group II. CONCLUSIONS: We suggests that PRK using flying spot laser effectively more reduces corneal astigmatism and provided more satisfactory predictability in refractive results than that of broad beam laser.