[Clinical results of photo-refractive keratectomy. Preliminary study with 57 eyes]

The authors report their personal experience of Photo-Refractive Keratectomy (PRK) with an Excimer Laser based on the study of 57 sighted eyes, 24 with more than six months and 11 with more than one year of follow-up. The initial myopia ranged from -1 to -13 D with a spherical average equivalent of -6.36 D. The photo-ablations, performed with the Excimer of the Summit Company, ranged from 3.7 to 5 mm of diameter and 16 to 76 mu in depth. Results are reported overall and for sub-groups of myopia (A < or = -3 D, -3 D < B < or = -7 D, -7 D, < C). They were satisfactory since at one year 45% of eyes obtained a visual acuity without correction > or = 5/10 and 64% of eyes were within one dioptre of emmetropia; stability of refraction from six months to one year is close to 80%; safety was good since no patient has lost a line of best spectacle corrected visual acuity at one year and we only found one case of haze at 1+ without visual loss. These encouraging results lead the authors to pursue their study and to include new patients to obtain larger groups in order to establish statistically significant differences for parameters such as age, sex, myopia, keratometry, depth and optical zone of photo-ablation.