THURSDAY, April 20, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Two popular laser-assisted surgeries to correct nearsightedness -- LASIK and PRK -- are equally effective at restoring 20/20 vision six months to a year after the procedure, concludes a review of recent studies.
Both LASIK (laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis) and PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) use a laser to reshape the eye's cornea. PRK works by shaving off microscopic layers of the cornea. In LASIK, a flap is cut in the cornea in order to remove excess tissue below.
The review, published in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, did find that people who have LASIK tend to recover their vision faster and report less pain after surgery than PRK patients. However, LASIK patients tend to be more uncomfortable during the actual surgery.
The authors reviewed six studies involving 417 eyes -- 201 treated with PRK and 216 treated with LASIK. Some patients had surgery in only one eye, and some had each eye treated with different procedures.
There was some evidence that a greater percentage of eyes treated with PRK lose visual acuity six months after surgery, compared with eyes treated with LASIK. This loss of vision after PRK may be partly due to corneal "haze" caused by inflammation caused by the procedure.
"The risk of significant haze after PRK is an important difference between these two procedures," review author Dr. Alex Schortt, of the Moorefields Eye Hospital in London, England, said in a prepared statement.
However, he noted that none of the studies in the review included the use of an anti-scar drug called mitomycin C, which has been shown to be successful in reducing postoperative eye haze.
More information
The American Academy of Ophthalmology has more about refractive surgeries.
