Corneal Aberrations of Patients Indicated for Excimer Laser Refractive Surgery

Abstract

Objective: To determine corneal aberrations in patients indicated for excimer laser refractive surgery.

Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out with 161 eyes of 81 adult patients of both sexes with indication of excimer laser surgery for the correction of their refractive defect. Age, sex, defocus, astigmatism, coma, trefoil and spherical aberration were defined as variables, determined by routine topographic study with the KeratronTM Scout topographer, Optikon.

Results: The following average values were obtained: defocus of -4.17 ± 0.29 D (-16.15 to 8.5 D) and absolute of 4.94 ± 0.199 (10 to 16.5 D), astigmatism of -1.56 ± 0.09 D (-9.44 to -0.09 D), coma of 0.25 ± 0.016 (0.01 to 1.5 D), trefoil of 0.204 ± 0.016 (0.01 to 1.18 D) and spherical aberration of 0.316 ± 0.018 D (0.0 to 1.27D). In 75 % of the cases, the absolute values for defocus were lower than 6.56; for astigmatism, lower than 0.33 D; for coma, lower than 0.33; for trefoil, lower than 0.25; and for spherical aberrations, lower than 0.32 D.

Conclusions: The average values of corneal aberrations for defocus, astigmatism, coma, trefoil and spherical aberration are in the range of values reported in the scientific literature, while the distribution of corneal aberrations values present displacement of most of the cases towards the lower values of the determination range.