Radial Keratotomy: A Clinical and Statistical Analysis

This paper reports a prospective clinical investigation of radial keratotomy using the Fyodorov method and instrumentation. One hundred forty-seven eyes were evaluated 1-year postoperatively. The preoperative mean myopia was 5.33 diopters (range 1.75–11.75D). Eighty percent of the 147 eyes obtained 20/40 or better uncorrected vision. One hundred percent of the low myopia group and 68% of the high myopia group achieved this level of vision. The degree of preexisting myopia, patient age, fellow eye experience, and surgeon experience significantly influenced the surgical result and facilitated the predictability of the procedure. The surgical result is directly related to the incision depth.The low myopia group experienced stabilization of surgical effect by 3 months. With higher degrees of initial myopia, stabilization tended to occur much later. A 1.5% incidence of moderate glare and a 4.0% incidence of severe variation of vision is reported. A non-progressive endothelial cell loss of 5.2% and the absence of major complications and low incidence of side effects is encouraging. Both interviews by an independent observer and written patient subjective questionnaires revealed a high level of patient satisfaction.