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Study gives advantage to LASIK over long-term contact lens wear with regard to ocular discomfort

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NEW ORLEANS — Wavefront-guided LASIK resulted in improved distance vision with a lower incidence of adverse effects than for long-term contact lens wear, according to a study presented here.

“LASIK is arguably safer than long-term contact lens wear, with an almost three times advantage in terms of ocular discomfort and better levels of 20/16 vision, with no long-term differences in glare, halos, starbursts or dry eye symptoms,” Steven J. Dell, MD, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.

Steven J. Dell

The retrospective study included 1,232 long-term contact lens wearers, 3,502 patients who were examined 1 month after wavefront-guided LASIK and 1,351 patients examined 5 years after LASIK. Mean patient age was 29 years in the contact lens and 1-month LASIK groups, and 30 years in the 5-year LASIK group.

Preoperative myopia ranged from 0.25 D to 6 D, with up to 1.5 D of astigmatism.

Results showed that monocular uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) was similar in the contact lens and 1-month LASIK groups. However, binocular UDVA was slightly better in the 1-month LASIK group.

Moderate starbursts and halos were reported in 1.6% of patients in the contact lens group, 4.6% of those in the 1-month LASIK group and 2.4% of those in the 5-year LASIK group.

Moderate glare was reported in 2.9% of patients in the contact lens group, 4.6% of those in the 1-month LASIK group and 3% of those in the 5-year LASIK group.

Moderate dry eye symptoms were reported in 5.5% of contact lens wearers and 8.7% of patients in the 1-month LASIK group. In the 5-year LASIK group, 92.1% of patients reported no or some dry eye symptoms.

Fifty-two percent of contact lens wearers reported some problem with their lenses; 19% of these patients reported having had an infection related to their lenses and 8.3% reported having had multiple contact lens-related infections, Dell said.

Among contact lens wearers, 27.8% reported they never had lens-related discomfort, whereas 79.5% of 5-year LASIK patients reported no pain or soreness within the previous week, which accounted for a nearly three times advantage with regard to comfort for LASIK patients, according to the presentation.

Furthermore, 97.9% of LASIK patients reported quality-of-life improvement because of their procedure.

At 1 month, 98.5% of LASIK patients reported that their corrected vision was better than their preoperative vision, Dell said. “These are superb numbers for LASIK,” Dell said. – by Matt Hasson and Patricia Nale, ELS

Reference:

Dell SJ. Long-term visual and subjective outcomes: LASIK vs. contact lenses. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting; May 6-10, 2016; New Orleans.

Disclosure: Dell reports he is a consultant for Abbott Medical Optics and Optical Express.