Early postoperative pain following Epi-LASIK and photorefractive keratectomy: a prospective, comparative, bilateral study

PURPOSE:

To compare postoperative pain associated with epi-LASIK versus photorefractive keratectomy (PRK).

METHODS:

This prospective observer-masked randomized study included 40 eyes of 20 patients with myopia and astigmatism who received epi-LASIK (Moria Epi-K) in one eye and PRK in the contralateral eye. Corneal ablation was done using the NIDEK EC-5000 excimer laser. Patients were seen at days 1, 3, and 6 to rate their pain via three measuring tools: 1) a global subjective rating, 2) a 10-cm visual analog scale, and 3) an 11-point numeric scale of pain.

RESULTS:

On postoperative day 1, 19 of 20 patients reported pain in both eyes. Using the global subjective rating scale, patients reported more pain for those eyes treated by PRK. Although clinically relevant, this difference was not statistically significant (P = .56). Based on the 11-point numeric scale of pain and visual analog scale, mean pain scores were similar for both groups. On day 3, using the global subjective rating scale, 11 of 12 patients who had pain reported more in the epi-LASIK treated eye (P = .0005). In addition, epi-LASIK eyes demonstrated higher mean pain scores based on the other two scales (visual analog scale, P = .045 and 11-point numeric scale of pain, P = .023). Only 6 patients reported minimal pain on day 6. It was more frequently reported and slightly more marked in epi-LASIK eyes, but did not reach statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS:

Epi-LASIK and PRK have similar pain on postoperative day 1, but epi-LASIK demonstrated statistically more pain than PRK on days 3 and 6.