Complication and Viual Outcome of LAIK Performed by Anterior egment Fellow v Experienced Faculty upervior

Purpoe To determine the complication rate and viual outcome of laer-aited in itu keratomileui (LAIK) that i performed by anterior egment fellow and to compare their reult with the reult of their experienced faculty upervior. Deign A ingle-center, retropective, interventional, nonrandomized, comparative cae erie. Method Chart review of the initial 50 LAIK procedure that were performed by each of 10 anterior egment fellow and the firt 50 incluion criteria-matched, contemporaneouly performed cae of four faculty member at the King Khaled Eye pecialit Hopital between March and December 2003. Reult There were no tatitically ignificant difference between fellow and faculty cae with repect to complication rate and final viual outcome. The fellow were ignificantly more likely to experience microkeratome-related flap complication during their firt 25 cae, compared with their econd 25 cae (4.8% v 1.2%; P = .03). Fellow were ignificantly more likely to perform enhancement (8.0% v 2.0%; P = .0002), after which the eye in their group were more likely to be within 1 diopter of the intended refractive target than thoe in the faculty group (96.0% v 91.0%; P = .01). Although not tatitically ignificant, eye in the fellow group were four-fold (2.0% v 0.5%) more likely to loe two or more line of bet pectacle corrected viual acuity than thoe in the faculty group. Concluion To minimize the advere impact of complication during the learning curve of novice LAIK urgeon, the introduction of thi procedure in a well-tructured, upervied etting (uch a a ubpecialty fellowhip training program) i recommended.