Does the effectiveness of refractive surgery vary during the year: results from the Hamburg weather study

Poster Details

First Author: AndreasFrings GERMANY

Co Author(s):    Ines Neuhaus-Richard   Isabel Caroline Görsch   Felix Ament   Toam Katz   Stephan Johannes Linke   Gisbert Richard

Abstract Details

Purpose:

To examine the impact of seasonality on refractive and visual outcome of laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) in myopic eyes.

Setting:

: Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany and Care Vision Refractive Centers, Germany

Methods:

This study comprised 1052 eyes of 1052 consecutive myopic patients (419 males, 633 females; mean age at surgery 35.0±9.0 years) with mean preoperative refractive spherical equivalent (SE) of -3.88±1.85 diopters (D). Two subgroups were defined, comprising patients undergoing surgery during either meteorological winter or summer. Manifest refraction, uncorrected and corrected visual acuity were assessed pre- and postoperatively. We applied robust regression analysis with efficiency index (EI), safety index (SI), and postoperative SE (in D) as dependent variables.

Results:

At the 1-month (33.0±5.0 days) follow-up, the mean postoperative SE was –0.18±0.44 D. The EI of eyes with refractive surgery during summer was 0.023 higher (P=0.032) compared to those treated during winter, thereby indicating less efficiency. For the SI and postoperative SE, differences between summer and winter were not statistically significant. No change of more than one line on logMar scale was obtained.

Conclusions:

Although being statistically significant, there is no clinically relevant difference in outcome of LASIK, which demonstrates its highly standardized quality. Prospective, longitudinal studies are warranted to address meteorotropic reactions through evaluating defined meteorological parameters. FINANCIAL INTEREST: NONE