LASIK monovision highly successful but patients have higher enhancement rates

This study examined the results of patients who chose to undergo monovision LASIK. The authors retrospectively evaluated the cases of 284 consecutively treated LASIK patients age 45 and older and found that 67 percent (188) of them opted for the goal of monovision, with the remaining patients selecting bilateral distance correction. The researchers were able to follow up with 172 of the monovision LASIK patients for at least one month and concluded that they may be less tolerant of small degrees of ametropia in their distance eye than bilateral distance correction patients.

Forty-one percent of the 172 patients met the researchers' criteria for successful near vision, distance vision and anisometropia. Five of these 70 successfully treated patients chose to enhance their near vision eye to distance vision and forego monovision. All of the monovision LASIK patients were provided with the opportunity to undergo enhancement procedures at no charge for one year after the initial surgery.

Only seven percent of the 172 patients requested enhancement to their near vision eye to eliminate monovision, although 28 percent underwent enhancement to their distance eye and 10 percent to their near eye. Vision results and monovision acceptance rates were similar among the 22 hyperopic patients compared with the myopic patients.

Eighty-five percent of monovision LASIK patients chose their dominant eye for distance vision. However, there was no difference in the monovision acceptance rate among patients who opted to use their dominant eye for near vision.

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Financial Disclosures
Dr. Randleman receives lecture fees from Alcon, Inc., Allergan, Inc., and ISTA Pharmaceuticals.