Safety, efficacy and refractive outcomes of LASIK surgery in patients aged 65 or older.

PURPOSE

Report on the safety, efficiency and refractive outcomes of LASIK surgery in patients aged 65 or older.

METHODS

This study includes a case series of patients ≥65 years that underwent corneal refractive surgery during the period June 2010 to June 2015 at Hospital Zambrano Hellion, Monterrey, Mexico. Inclusion criteria were normal topography, central corneal thickness >500 μm, preoperative manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE) up to -8.5 D and +6.0 D, cylinder up to -6.0 D, CDVA of 20/25 or better and with no other ocular pathology.

RESULTS

A total of 44 eyes (24 patients) were included. Mean age was 67.2 ± 2.1 years (range 65-80), with mean follow-up of 12.2 ± 1.3 months. Conventional LASIK was performed in 20 patients (group 1, 36 eyes) to improve UDVA (10 eyes myopic LASIK and 26 eyes hyperopic LASIK) and presbyopic LASIK (monovision) in 4 patients (group 2, 8 eyes) to restore near-vision performance. Preoperative MRSE group 1 was myopic: -2.79 ± 1.88 D; hyperopic +2.19 ± 1.88 D; and +2.10 ± 0.87 D in group 2. Preoperative UDVA in group 1 was 0.67 ± 0.30 LogMAR; 0.46 ± 0.18 LogMAR; and Jaeger ≥4 in 90% in group 2. Postoperative MRSE: -0.29 ± 0.86 D (myopic LASIK) (p < 0.001), +0.34 ± 0.62 D (hyperopic LASIK) (p < 0.001) and -1.25 ± 0.59 D (non-dominant eye) in presbyopic LASIK. Postoperative UDVA in myopic LASIK was 0.15 ± 0.30 (p = 0.001) and 0.11 ± 0.11 (p < 0.001) for hyperopic LASIK. In group 2, binocular UDVA was 0.16 ± 0.17 (p = 0.12) and UNVA was ≥J2 in 100% of the patients.

CONCLUSION

Even though elder patients may present greater LASIK restrictions due to lens and other ocular age-related changes, patients ≥65 years that were candidates for conventional and presbyopic LASIK showed satisfactory and safe refractive and visual outcomes.