Comparison of Night Driving Performance after Wavefront-Guided and Conventional LASIK for Moderate Myopia

This article reports on a study that compared preoperative and postoperative changes in simulated night driving performance after wavefront-guided (wLASIK) and conventional LASIK (cLASIK) for the treatment of moderate myopia. The study included all eyes of subjects with a preoperative manifest spherical equivalent (MSE) between −4.50 and −6.00 who underwent night driving simulator (NDS) testing from 2 clinical trials. This comprised 38 cLASIK patients (62 eyes; mean −5.46 diopters [D] MSE) and 21 wLASIK patients (36 eyes, mean −5.20 D MSE). The authors compared this data to patients' records from 2 LASIK clinical trials that had similar enrollment criteria. The patients included in this study were relatively young; no subject was older than 51 years. One trial treated patients with conventional LASIK using a bladed microkeratome (cLASIK) and the other treated with a wavefront-guided profile using a femtosecond laser (wLASIK). In both trials, patients with moderate myopia were asked to participate in NDS testing. The results showed that in every category, there was a mean reduction in the preoperative to postoperative NDS performance after cLASIK; there was a corresponding mean improvement after wLASIK. Significant differences between cLASIK and wLASIK NDS performance was observed in every category. A clinical relevant loss of NDS performance (greater than 0.5 seconds) was observed in 32% to 38% of cLASIK eyes for all tasks, whereas only 0% to 3% of eyes had this loss after wLASIK. Between 2% and 7% of cLASIK eyes and 11% and 31% of wLASIK eyes had a significant postoperative improvement in NDS performance in every task. The authors conclude that wavefront-guided LASIK to correct myopia combined with a femtosecond laser flap significantly improved mean night driving visual performance and was significantly better than cLASIK using a mechanical keratome. The article includes a brief discussion of the implications of this research, particularly for aviators in the United States Navy and Air Force.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01616420
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Schallhorn, Steve C
  • Tanzer, David J
  • Kaupp, Sandor E
  • Brown, Mitch
  • Malady, Stephanie E
• Publication Date: 2009-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 702-709
• Serial:
  • Ophthalmology
  • Volume: 116
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0161-6420
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01616420

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pilots; Automobile drivers; Glare; Night vision; Surgery; Vision; Vision disorders; Visually impaired persons
• Identifier Terms: LASIK
• Uncontrolled Terms: Laser surgery; Symptoms
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01131306
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 29 2009 7:43AM