Postoperative Astigmatic Changes After Femtosecond Laser And Photorefractive Keratectomy

To describe and compare postoperative astigmatic changes after femtosecond laser (FSL) and Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) in eyes with moderate to high astigmatism error 

National Center Ophthalmology named after Academician Zarifa Aliyeva

This study comprised patients having PRK or (FSL)surgeries for astigmatism correction. All eyes had less than 6 diopter (D) preoperative cylinder and were analyzed at 3 months of follow up. One surgeon performed all procedures. Paired incisions were placed symmetrically on steepest corneal meridian according to Orb Scan results 

forty- eight eyes (27 patients) were included. The mean manifest astigmatism decreased from -4.41± 1.73 D preoperatively to -2.33 ±1.12 D postoperatively in FSL group (p<0.001) and in PRK group, it decreased from -3.10 ± 1.22 D to -1.07 ± 0.59 D postoperatively (p<0.001). The maximum amount of astigmatic correction after FSL and PRK surgeries was 4.5 D. 23.8%, 4.8% and 71.4% of eyes in FSL group had 0.5 D or less, 1 D or less or greater than 1 D astigmatism correction, respectively, compared with 29.6%, 70.4% 1 D or less or greater than 1 D correction after PRK. 

The regression effect was comparable between two types of refractive surgeries. PRK is as effective as FSL for astigmatism error in cases with up to 6 D astigmatism.