Medical Non-Candidates For Refractive Surgery: A Statistical Analysis.

Introduction: Thousands of patients each year are referred to LASIK surgeons for a consultation to determine their candidacy for the procedure. This retrospective study will evaluate the medical records of hundreds of non-surgical candidates in a metropolitan population with the goal of helping to guide practitioners when recommending LASIK surgery.
Methods: The medical records of all medical non-candidates who presented between October 2011 and January 2015 for an evaluation for LASIK surgery at the Lasik Vision Institute in Brookfield, Wisconsin were selected for the analysis.
Results: The sample size was 573 non-surgical candidates, which represented 7.9% of all patients seen for a consult in the specified time period. All non-surgical candidates were categorized into groups identifying the medical reason for denial of surgery as well as the percentage of candidates relative to the total number of candidates.
Conclusions: Data has shown that patients consult with optometrists prior to seeking a refractive surgery consultation, and therefore optometrists should be knowledgeable and serve as a resource to the patient. This study has shown that the most frequent cause of rejection is related to refractive error which is outside of FDA parameters. As the gatekeepers of eyecare, optometrists should advise patients accordingly. The success rate of patients achieving visual acuity of 20/40 or better is 97%, and furthermore, 90% of all patients achieve visual acuity of 20/20 or better. In order to keep the success rate so high, appropriate selection of candidates is imperative.