Six-Month Refractive, Wavefront Aberration And Clinical Outcomes Of Transepithelial Photorefractive Keratectomy For Treatment Of Extremely High Myopia From -8 To -12Diopters - An East Asian Population-Based Study

To evaluate the six-month refractive, wavefront aberration, visual, and anatomical outcomes of transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy for treatment of extremely high myopia from -8 to -12 diopters in an east asian-base population.

Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung

Twenty-two eyes of 11 patients with extremely high myopia from -8 to -12 diopters that underwent transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy using the Schwind Amaris 750S laser platform in our hospital from March 2022 to September 2022 were were evaluated. Patients underwent clinical examination with uncorrected visual acuity, best-corrected visual acuity, cycloplegic refraction, wavefront aberrometry over a 6 mm diameter central corneal zone,  corneal topography, anterior segment optical coherence tomography, and morphologic examination of the endothelial cells and corneal nerves at baseline, 1, 3, and 6 months after treatment. 

At 6 months, 86.36% of eyes achieved uncorrected visual acuity ≥ 20/20, and 95.45% had ≥20/25. No patients lost ≥1 line of best-corrected vision. For accuracy, 81.81% of eyes were within 0.5 diopter of target spherical equivalence, and 95.45% were within 1 diopter of target spherical equivalence. At 6 months, total corneal higher order aberrations (HOA) was 0.51um, vertical coma was 0.28um,  horizontal coma was 0.26um, and sphereical abberation was 0.32um. 

The case series found that trans-PRK remains a safe, efficacious, and predictable surgery for correction of high myopia, even in extremely high myopic cases. Future studies are warranted to further establish the role of trans-PRK in refractive error management.