Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment after LASIK for myopia of up to -10 diopters: 10 years of follow-up

Background: The aim of this work was to characterize rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) in over 22,000 eyes after laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for the correction of myopia ≤ -10.00 diopters (D), its characteristics, and its frequency at 10 years of follow-up. Methods: This is a retrospective single-center interventional non-comparative case series. A total of 22,296 myopic eyes that underwent surgical correction of myopia ≤ -10.00 D were included. LASIK for the correction of myopia was performed in all eyes. Patients were followed for 10 years after LASIK. The clinical charts of patients that developed rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) after LASIK were reviewed. Results: A total of 11,594 (52%) eyes came back for followup after LASIK at 10 years. Twenty-two eyes (19 patients) developed a RRD after LASIK at 10 years. Rhegmatogenous retinal detachments occurred between 1 month and 10 years (mean: 31.6±39.3 months) after LASIK. Eyes that developed a RRD had from -1.50 to -9.75 D of myopia (mean: -4.81±2.2 D) before LASIK. The frequency of RRD after LASIK determined in our study was 0.05% (11/ 22,296) at 1 year, 0.15% (18/11,371) at 5 years, and 0.19% (22/11,594) at 10 years. Conclusions: Rhegmatogenous retinal detachment after LASIK for the correction of myopia ≤ -10.00 D is infrequent. The risk of RRD after LASIK is very low if you screen patients, and do prophylactic treatment as performed in this study. RRD, if managed promptly, will result in good vision. We recommend that patients scheduled for refractive surgery undergo a very thorough dilated indirect funduscopy with scleral depression and treatment of any retinal lesion predisposing to the development of a RRD before LASIK surgery should be performed.