RESEARCH ARTICLE
Relative Proportion Of Different Types Of Refractive Errors In Subjects Seeking Laser Vision Correction
Talal A. Althomali*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 12
First Page: 53
Last Page: 62
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-12-53
DOI: 10.2174/1874364101812010053
Article History:
Received Date: 29/09/2017Revision Received Date: 15/02/2018
Acceptance Date: 14/4/2018
Electronic publication date: 30/04/2018
Collection year: 2018
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Refractive errors are a form of optical defect affecting more than 2.3 billion people worldwide. As refractive errors are a major contributor of mild to moderate vision impairment, assessment of their relative proportion would be helpful in the strategic planning of health programs.
Purpose:
To determine the pattern of the relative proportion of types of refractive errors among the adult candidates seeking laser assisted refractive correction in a private clinic setting in Saudi Arabia.
Methods:
The clinical charts of 687 patients (1374 eyes) with mean age 27.6 ± 7.5 years who desired laser vision correction and underwent a pre-LASIK work-up were reviewed retrospectively. Refractive errors were classified as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE) was applied to define refractive errors.
Outcome Measures:
Distribution percentage of different types of refractive errors; myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.
Results:
The mean spherical equivalent for 1374 eyes was -3.11 ± 2.88 D. Of the total 1374 eyes, 91.8% (n = 1262) eyes had myopia, 4.7% (n = 65) eyes had hyperopia and 3.4% (n = 47) had emmetropia with astigmatism. Distribution percentage of astigmatism (cylinder error of ≥ 0.50 D) was 78.5% (1078/1374 eyes); of which % 69.1% (994/1374) had low to moderate astigmatism and 9.4% (129/1374) had high astigmatism.
Conclusion and Relevance:
Of the adult candidates seeking laser refractive correction in a private setting in Saudi Arabia, myopia represented greatest burden with more than 90% myopic eyes, compared to hyperopia in nearly 5% eyes. Astigmatism was present in more than 78% eyes.