[Femtosecond laser versus mechanical microkeratome for LASIK flap creation]

To assess LASIK flaps made by femtosecond laser and mechanical microkeratome.

Clinical, prospective, randomized, masked study of 32 eyes (16 patients). Both eyes of all patients were operated, each patient underwent different techniques for lasik. Microkeratome Hansatome (TM) Bausch & Lomb (group microkeratome) was used in one eye and femtosecond laser Femto LDV(TM) Ziemer (group femtosecond) was used for the fellow eye. Patients were selected from the Refractive Surgery service of the Eye Hospital of Paraná between July 2010 and September 2010. Inclusion criteria were myopia less than 6.00 D, astigmatism less than 3.00 D, hyperopia less than 5.00 D, stable refraction over one year, corneal diameter smaller than 11 mm, discontinuation of contact lenses seven days before the preoperative evaluation, corrected visual acuity of at least 20/20. Eyes were randomly allocated for each technique. The studied variables were: visual acuity with and without correction, residual refractive error, high order aberrations, low contrast visual acuity, complications and subjective patient preference.

All studied variables were similar between the two groups.

We could not demonstrate any difference between the studied groups.