LASIK SURGERY IN AL- NASSIRYA CITY A CLINICOSTATISTICAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: LASIK which stands for laser in-situ keratomileusis is the procedure that involves creating corneal flap to ablate mid stromal tissue directly with an excimer laser beam, ultimately flattening the cornea to treat myopia and steepening the cornea to treat hypermetropia, whereas earlier techniques of keratomileusis consisted of removing a corneal flap and resecting stromal tissue manually, technologic advancements have revolutionized this procedure into highly automated process. In general the goals of the refractive surgery are to reduce or eliminate the need for glasses or refractive lenses without altering the quality of the vision or best corrected vision. Most improvement in refractive errors is measured in term of visual acuity   (Snellen chart) . Aim Of The Study:  is to have a clinico-statistical assessment of LASIK surgery in AL- Nasirya city, since it is a recent surgery in Iraq started for the first time three years ago in Almosawi Hospital.    Patients And Methods: In this study a 510 cases of ametropic patients (myopia, hypermetropia, and astigmatism) with visual acuity of 6\24 or worse underwent LASIK surgery for correction of refractive error in Al-Mosawi private hospital from a period between August 2007 – August 2010. Each patient examined preoperatively for visual acuity, type of refractive error, corneal thickness (packymetry), and corneal surface shape (topography) to decide the suitable candidates for surgery. Postoperatively the patient examined for visual acuity. Results: In  this study we noticed that from 510 cases, 300 (58.82%) were female, while the remaining 210 cases (41.176) were male. Regarding the age distribution of the cases, 152 (29.8%) of the cases lies between 23-27 year , which is the predominant age group. The second most predominant age group was between 28-32 year, 126 cases (24.7%) lies in this age group. One hundred two cases (20%) were between 18- 22 years. Seventy cases (13.7%) were between 33-37 years. Regarding the refractive error, most of the cases operated on had low myopic astigmatism the number of the cases was two hundred two (39.6%). The second most frequent refractive error was low myopia representing 156 cases (30.58%). high myopia was the third most common refractive error representing 86 cases (16.86%). Fourth group was high myopic astigmatim representing 10.58% (54 cases). The last group was hypermetropia representing 2.35% (twelve cases).    Regarding the visual acuity 81.81% (832 eyes) had uncorrected visual acuity of 6\6 or better, 95.083% (967 eyes) had uncorrected visual acuity of 6\9 or better, and 100% (1017 eyes) had visual acuity of 6\12 or better.