Comparison of the Visual Results After SMILE and Femtosecond Laser-Assisted LASIK for Myopia

Abstract

Original Article Fangyu Lin, MD; Yesheng Xu, MD; Yabo Yang, PhD, MD Click here to read a Letter to the Editor about this article. This article has been amended to include a factual correction. To read the erratum, click here. The online article and its erratum are considered the version of record. To perform a comparative clinical analysis of the safety, efficacy, and predictability of two surgical procedures (ie, small incision lenticule extraction [SMILE] and femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK [FS-LASIK]) to correct myopia. Sixty eyes of 31 patients with a mean spherical equivalent of −5.13 ± 1.75 diopters underwent myopia correction with the SMILE procedure. Fifty-one eyes of 27 patients with a mean spherical equivalent of −5.58 ± 2.41 diopters were treated with the FS-LASIK procedure. Postoperative uncorrected and corrected distance visual acuity, manifest refraction, and higher-order aberrations were analyzed statistically at 1 and 3 months postoperatively. No statistically significant differences were found at 1 and 3 months in parameters that included the percentage of eyes with an uncorrected distance visual acuity of 20/20 or better (P = .556, .920) and mean spherical equivalent refraction (P = .055, .335). At 1 month, 4 SMILE-treated eyes and 1 FS-LASIK–treated eye lost one or more line of visual acuity (P = .214, chi-square test). At 3 months, 2 SMILE-treated eyes lost one or more line of visual acuity, whereas all FS-LASIK–treated eyes had an unchanged or corrected distance visual acuity. Higher-order aberrations and spherical aberration were significantly lower in the SMILE group than the FS-LASIK group at 1 (P = .007, .000) and 3 (P = .006, .000) months of follow-up. SMILE and FS-LASIK are safe, effective, and predictable surgical procedures to treat myopia. SMILE has a lower induction rate of higher-order aberrations and spherical aberration than the FS-LASIK procedure. [J Refract Surg. 2014;30(4):248–254.] From the Department of Ophthalmology, Second Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. The authors have no financial or proprietary interest in the materials presented herein. AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Conception and design (FL, YX, YY); data collection (FL, YX, YY); analysis and interpretation of data (FL, YX, YY); writing the manuscript (FL, YX, YY) Correspondence: Yabo Yang, PhD, MD, Department of Ophthalmology, Second Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009, China. E-mail: yabyang@hotmail.com This article has been amended to include a factual correction. An error was identified subsequent to its original printing. On page 250 of the article “Comparison of the Visual Results After SMILE and Femtosecond Laser-Assisted LASIK for Myopia” by Lin et al., which was published in the April 2014 issue of the Journal of Refractive Surgery, the P value of 1.101 should be .101. This error was acknowledged on page 582, volume 30, issue 9. The online article and its erratum are considered the version of record. 10.3928/1081597X-20140320-03