Astigmatism: risk factor for postoperative corneal haze in conventional myopic photorefractive keratectomy.

Purpose: To retrospectively assess risk factors other than high myopia for corneal haze in patients who had conventional photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) without mitomycin-C (MMC).

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, California, USA.

Methods: This retrospective study comprised 362 eyes of 193 military members who had conventional PRK with the Star excimer laser system from 2004 to 2006. Study inclusion criteria were myopia less than -6.0 diopters (D) spherical equivalent with or without astigmatism, no MMC applied, and at least 3 months of postoperative data available.

Results: Nine eyes had grade 2 corneal haze or greater. Of these eyes, 5 had greater than 2.0 D of astigmatism and 4 had no identifiable risk factors. Clinically significant postoperative corneal haze was associated with the level of preoperative astigmatism (P<.001).

Conclusions: Preoperative astigmatism was significantly associated with the development of corneal haze after conventional PRK without MMC. Based on these data, surgeons should consider prophylactic MMC use during conventional PRK procedures for patients with moderate to high levels of astigmatism (approximately >or=1.25 D).