Early Outcomes Of Contralateral-Eye Comparison Between Femtoprk Versus Conventional Manual Excimer Prk

To compare early visual, refractive, safety, epithelial healing and patient comfort between FemtoPRK (Ziemer LDV Z8 Femtosecond laser) and conventional excimer PRK (Alcon EX-500) using a paired contralateral-eye design.

Single private high-volume refractive surgery center.

Prospective comparative study of patients undergoing bilateral surface ablation with FemtoPRK using only the Ziemer LDV Z8 Femtosecond laser in one eye and standard excimer PRK with Alcon EX-500 in the fellow eye. Outcomes were evaluated included uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA, logMAR), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), spherical equivalent refraction (SEQ), epithelial healing, patient-reported discomfort, and anterior segment OCT findings. Paired comparisons were performed.

10 patients (20 eyes) were included. At day 5, complete epithelial healing was observed in all eyes in both groups. No difference in postoperative discomfort was reported between techniques. Anterior segment OCT demonstrated comparable epithelial remodeling and stromal interface characteristics. At 2 weeks, mean UDVA was 0.15 ± 0.18 versus 0.12 ± 0.14 logMAR, respectively (p = 0.479). Mean SEQ was +0.16 ± 0.34 D (FemtoPRK) versus +0.30 ± 0.39 D (excimer PRK) (p = 0.231), with 85.7% versus 71.4% within ±0.50 D. No adverse events occurred

FemtoPRK and conventional excimer PRK demonstrated comparable early visual recovery, refractive accuracy, epithelial healing, comfort, and OCT findings at 2 weeks.