A Comparison Of Changes In Corneal Sensation And Dry Eye In Patients Undergoing Lasik And Smile Surgery

Published 2022 - 40th Congress of the ESCRS

Reference: FPM11.10 | Type: Free paper | DOI: 10.82333/c1e5-1d60

Authors: Edward E. Manche* ¹ , Kevin Ma ¹

¹Byers Eye Institute,Stanford University School of Medicine,Palo Alto,United States

Purpose

To compare changes in corneal sensation and dry eye in symptoms in patients undergoing small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) and laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) in a prospective, randomized, eye-to-eye study.

Setting

Academic refractive surgical service.

Methods

Eighty eyes of 40 patients were randomized to receive SMILE surgery in one eye and wavefront-guided LASIK surgery in their fellow eye. Corneal sensitivity was measured preoperatively and at each postopertive visit using Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometry. Patients also completed the validated OSDI questionnaire preoperatively and at each postoperative visit to assess changes in dry eye symptoms.

Results

A greater decrease in corneal sensitvitiy was measured in eyes undergoing LASIK compared to SMILE at postoperative month one (2.1 vs 3.6 cm, p < 0.001), postoperative month three (3.5 vs 5.4 cm, p < 0.001) and and postoperative month six (4.7 vs 5.7 cm, p < 0.001). At postoperative month 12, both groups had returned to baseline corneal sensitivity (5.9 vs 5.9 cm, p = 0.3). There was no difference in OSDI between the two groups at any visit. The mean OSDI score improved from the preoperative visit to the postoperative 12-month visit in both SMILE (15.1 to 9.5, p = 0.023) LASIK (15.3 to 8.6, p = 0.009).

Conclusions

There was a greater decrease corneal sensitivity in LASIK compared to SMILE in the early postoperative period. However, this difference was no longer present after 12 months. Despite the more profound decrease in corneal sensitivity, there was no difference in dry eye symptoms between the two groups and measured by the OSDI questionnaire.