COMPARISON BETWEEN VISUALAND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF FEMTOSECOND LASER IN SITU KERATOMILEUSIS AND PHOTOREFRACTIVE KERATECTOMY IN TREATMENT OF MYOPIA WITH ASTIGMATISM AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Purpose: The aim of this study is to compare the visual outcomes, contrast sensitivity and stereoacuity changes between Femtosecond Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis and Photorefractive Keratectomy in correction of myopia with astigmatism. Study Design: Hospital based, randomized, open labelled prospective interventional study. Materials And Method: The study included healthy subjects aged 21-40 years with myopic astigmatism and healthy corneas meeting the inclusion criteria of our study who attended routine ophthalmology out-patient department. Informed consent was taken from all the selected patients and they were randomized to undergo Photorefractive Keratectomy & Femtosecond Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis. Post operatively they were followed up at Day 1, 1 week, 1 month, 3 month and 6 months and changes in UCVA, Contrast Sensitivity, Stereopsis and Intraocular Pressure were noted. Results: In our study it was found that the UCVA was found to be better in FsLASIK patients initially compared to PRK group at Postoperative Day 1 (p-value =0.029) , 1 week (p-value= 0.028) & 1 month (pvalue=0.046) compared to PRK. However, at the end of 6 months similar UCVA was achieved with both modalities. Intraocular pressure though was found to be higher in FsLASIK compared to PRK (p-value= 0.005) at postoperative Day 1 at later follow ups no significant difference was found. There was no statistically significant difference in the post-operative Stereoacuity & Contrast Sensitivity between both the groups. Conclusion: It can be concluded that both PRK & FsLASIK give similar visual outcomes eventually however FsLASIK gives better visual outcomes more rapidly. Stereoacuity improves with both the modalities but is again improved sooner with FsLASIK. Contrast Sensitivity is unaffected by both the surgeries. However, the study comprised of a small sample size and hence further study might be required on larger scale.