Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Military symposium
highlights outcomes
T
he U.S. Armed Forces have
traditionally embraced
surface ablation more so
than LASIK, but that may
be changing, according
to several presentations at this
year's "Military Refractive Surgery
Symposium."
PRK "has a special role" and
accounts for about 85% of all
refractive procedures at Wilford Hall
Ambulatory Center, said Matthew
Caldwell, MD, Texas. But with PRK
comes a concern about haze and
the effect of long-term steroid use.
Analyzing 19,213 eyes that under-
by Michelle Dalton EyeWorld Contributing Writer
went PRK between 2004 and 2012,
Dr. Caldwell said 10,789 had short
taper steroids (tapered over 8 weeks)
while 8,424 had long taper steroids
(tapered over 4 months). Preop
demographics were nearly identical
between the two groups, with the
only difference being the amount of
spherical equivalent (–1.85 D in the
short taper group and –4.5 D in the
long taper).
"At 1 month postop, both
groups had the same percentage of
patients with more than 25 mmHg,
but by 6 months, this had resolved
to no steroid response," he said.
Dr. Barnes said the military is slowly changing its preference from PRK to LASIK for
active personnel.
ASCRS Symposia
