One-year Outcomes of Photorefractive Keratectomy and Factors Influencing Its Efficacy

We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the one-year outcomes of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and investigate the factors affecting its efficacy, The medical records of 196 eyes of 98 patients aged 18-40 years who underwent PRK between January 2021 and January 2023 for myopic, hypermetropic, and/or astigmatic refractive errors, and follow-up examinations in the first postoperative year were included. Outcome measures included intraoperative and postoperative complications and objective refraction spherical equivalent (SE) at the postoperative 1st year visit. A one-year postoperative measurement of SE within ± 0.50 D was considered successful. Potential factors that may influence success, including age, sex, preoperative corneal thickness, visual acuity, refractive error type and magnitude, astigmatism type, and mean keratometry (Kmean) were investigated. All PRK surgeries were performed by the same surgeon, utilizing alcohol-assisted epithelial removal using a WaveLight® EX 500 device. At the first year visit, 80.1% of patients achieved SE within ± 0.50 D. No intraoperative or postoperative complications were observed. Preoperative corneal thickness was identified as the sole factor affecting PRK outcomes. Analysis of the multiple model results indicated that a one-unit decrease in the preoperative pachymetry value increased the probability of success by a factor of 1.021 (1/0.979) (p=0.001). The other independent variables did not exhibit a statistically significant effect on the probability of success (p>0.05).