EyeWorld Asia-Pacific March 2014 Issue

40 EWAP rEfrActivE March 2014 Quality of vision - comparison between ReLEx SMILE and Femto LASIK. by Sri Ganesh, MD W e as refractive surgeons always strive to offer an effective and accurate yet cost-effective surgical procedure to our patients that will render them spectacle-free and provide good quality vision. Over the years and with the introduction of newer technologies like the femtosecond laser, LASIK had gained widespread popularity among refractive surgeons as the procedure to correct myopia or myopic astigmatism. The advantages of LASIK are innumerable, including early postoperative recovery and stabilization of visual acuity, minimal patient discomfort postoperatively and the possibility of enhancements in the future. However, side effects such as increased postoperative dry eyes, visual distortions like glare and halos, reduced vision under mesopic conditions and flap-related complications are disturbing to patients and surgeons alike. ReLEx SMILE, the latest introduction to the list of laser refractive surgeries, offers a single-step femtolaser surgery for correction of myopia. This entails using a femtosecond laser to create a superficial and deep cut, thus creating a lenticule within the corneal stroma, the thickness of the lenticule depending on the patient’s refractive error. The lenticule needs manual dissection and extraction through a small sidecut incision 0f 2 to 4 mm. The quality of vision following