Mohan Sivakami, Ramakrishnan Sivakalai, Muruganantham Periyanayagi, Vadivelu Sharmila Devi, Thangaraj Vimala
BACKGROUND Myopia (short-sightedness) is reaching epidemic proportions, especially in Asia, due to urbanization and increased screen and text–based activity throughout all aspects of our daily lives. One of the most promising and exciting developments in the world of correction of myopia, namely refractive surgery has been the advent of Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK). Dry eye is considered to be the most common complication of LASIK.1 The purpose of this study was to retrospectively investigate the incidence of dry eye in patients undergoing myopic LASIK at our tertiary care hospital and also to determine significant risk factors, if any, for developing dry eye in this cohort of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted at the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Services, Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai. This was a retrospective observational study of all eligible patients undergoing myopic LASIK. 100 patients i.e., 200 eyes were studied. RESULTS The mean age of patients undergoing LASIK was 24±4. Majority of them were females (59%). There was no difference in the gender and low scores in the Schirmer’s test. Pre-operative and post-operative Schirmer’s test and TBUT values revealed no dry eye. There was no correlation between pre-operative degree of myopia and post-operative low scores in Schirmer’s test. CONCLUSION Patients who underwent LASIK did not report and were not found to develop any significant dry eye in the postoperative period.
