Patients who have had laser vision correction are a group particularly motivated to minimise their glasses dependence. Historically, the accuracy of their refractive outcome prediction when they have cataract surgery has been inferior, when compared to other groups.
The lens implanted at the time of cataract surgery results in a change in the power of a patient’s eye. Biometry measurements (most importantly, the curvature of the front surface of the cornea) taken prior to cataract surgery predict the power of the cornea. While it is not possible to guarantee this outcome, modern technology allows a certain confidence that the final outcome will be within a particular range.
Assumptions regarding the shape of a cornea are used to extrapolate the corneal power from the shape of the cornea are no longer valid in a patient who has previously had laser vision correction. Many techniques have evolved and attempted to overcome this to improve the accuracy of this outcome
Reports presented at the Hong Kong International Symposium of Ophthalmology indicated that the accuracy of this outcome approached 80% of cases achieving within 0.5 dioptres of the desired outcome. Other reports aren’t quite as favourable however it is reassuring to know that this accuracy is improving.
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