Comparison of wavefront-guided photorefractive keratectomy and foldable iris-fixated phakic intraocular lens implantation for low to moderate myopia.

Purpose: To compare and evaluate the visual and refractive outcomes of myopic wavefront-guided photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and foldable phakic intraocular lens (pIOL) implantation for myopia.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, Haaglanden Medical Center, The Hague, The Netherlands.

Design: Comparative case series.

Methods: The differences in visual acuity and residual refractive outcomes after wavefront-guided PRK and Artiflex foldable pIOL implantation were compared in eyes with low to moderate myopia (spherical error -4.0 to -7.0 diopters [D]; maximum cylinder 2.25 D). One-year follow-up results are presented.

Results: At 1 year postoperatively, the mean decimal Snellen uncorrected distance visual acuity was 1.05 ± 0.21 (SD) in the PRK group (60 eyes) and 1.04 ± 0.21 in the pIOL group (33 eyes) and the mean corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), 1.21 ± 0.18 and 1.24 ± 0.13, respectively. In the PRK group, 21.7% of eyes lost 1 to 3 lines of CDVA and 11.7% of eyes gained 1 or 2 lines. In the pIOL group, no eye lost lines of CDVA and 42% gained 1 or 2 lines. At 1 year, 80.0% of eyes in the PRK group and 90.9% of eyes in the pIOL group were within ± 0.50 D of the spherical equivalent.

Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences in safety and efficacy between the pIOL group and the PRK group at 1 year. However, the percentage of eyes that gained lines of CDVA was significantly higher in the pIOL group.