Unilateral refractive surgery and myopia progression

Purpose: To compare the progression of myopia in eyes that underwent unilateral refractive surgery with non-operated eyes. Methods: Three patients who underwent refractive myopic correction in one eye are described. The collected preoperative and postoperative data included age, gender, subjective refraction, best corrected visual acuity, and uncorrected visual acuity. Results: The first patient (19-year-old woman) had photorefractive keratectomy in her left eye and the myopic progression was 1.20 diopters (D) (3 years postoperatively) compared to -2.50 D in her non-operated eye. The second patient (30-year-old man) had laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis in his left eye with a myopic progression of 0.25 D compared to 0.75 D in his non-operated eye (10 years postoperatively). The third patient (22-year-old man) underwent photorefractive keratectomy in his right eye with no myopic progression compared to -1.50 D in his non-operated eye (3 years postoperatively). Conclusions: These three cases suggest that refractive surgery for myopia correction may be associated with a slower progression of myopia postoperatively.