Short and long term outcomes after small-incision lenticule extraction: A tertiary referral centre experience

The objective of this study is to evaluate the preoperative and short- and long-term postoperative results in terms of visual acuity, refractive error, and corneal wavefront aberrations in patients with myopia and myopic astigmatism undergoing small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE).

Seventy-nine eyes of 52 myopes with or without astigmatism (41 right and 38 left) were enrolled in this retrospective study. The measurements included uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), spherical equivalent (SE) and wavefront aberrations. All the measurements before and after SMILE surgery were systematically recorded.

Mean preoperative UDVA was 1.19±0.24 logMAR and improved to 0.06±0.17 logMAR at the 3-year postoperative follow-up. At the conclusion of the 3-year follow-up, UDVA was better than or equal to 20/20 and 20/25 in 73% and 84% of eyes, respectively. At 1 month postoperatively, CDVA was 0.05±0.23 logMAR and significantly lower than the preoperative CDVA, 0.02±0.04 log MAR (P>0.05). However, at 1 year and 3 years after surgery, CDVA showed a significant increase compared to preoperative CDVA. At the conclusion of the 3-year follow-up, SE was -0.47 D, and 69.6% and 83.5% of the eyes were within±0.50 D and±1.00 D, respectively, of the intended correction. HOA's, coma, and spherical aberration increased significantly. No significant change in trefoil was detected.

This study showed that SMILE produces a stable, safe outcome for surgical treatment of myopia and myopic astigmatism.