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Do air pressure and wind speed influence the outcome of myopic laser refractive surgery? Results from the Hamburg Weather Study

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Abstract

Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is one of the dominant procedures for the surgical correction of refractive errors. Meteorotropic reaction has been described regarding the field of ophthalmology. This study was thus initiated to assess the impact of air pressure and wind speed on the refractive and visual outcome of LASIK in myopic eyes. Our study comprised 1,052 eyes of 1,052 consecutive myopic patients (419 males, 633 females; mean age at surgery 35.0 ± 9.0 years) with mean preoperative refractive spherical equivalent (SE) of −3.88 ± 1.85 diopters (D). Two subgroups were defined, which had undergone surgery either during meteorological winter or summer. Manifest refraction, uncorrected and corrected visual acuity were assessed pre- and post-operatively. We applied robust regression analysis with efficiency index (EI), safety index, and postoperative SE (D) as dependent variables. At the 1-month (33.0 ± 5.0 days) follow-up, the mean postoperative SE was −0.18 ± 0.44 D. Bivariate comparisons showed that statistically significant better EI was related to days with low to moderate air-pressure. This was confirmed by robust regression analysis. Moderate to high wind speed was related to more appropriate postoperative SE. No change by more than one line on logMar scale was obtained. Although being statistically significant, there is no clinically relevant difference in outcome of LASIK, which demonstrates its highly standardized quality. Prospective, longitudinal studies are warranted to address meteorotropic reactions through evaluating individual risk profiles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Ines Neuhaus-Richard, Andreas Frings, Isabel Caroline Görsch, Vasyl Druchkiv, Toam Katz, Stephan Johannes Linke & Gisbert Richard

  2. Meteorological Institute, University of Hamburg, Bundesstraße 52, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Felix Ament

  3. Care Vision Refractive Centers, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Toam Katz & Stephan Johannes Linke

Authors
  1. Ines Neuhaus-Richard
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  2. Andreas Frings
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  3. Felix Ament
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  4. Isabel Caroline Görsch
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  5. Vasyl Druchkiv
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  6. Toam Katz
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  7. Stephan Johannes Linke
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  8. Gisbert Richard
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Correspondence to Andreas Frings.

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Neuhaus-Richard, I., Frings, A., Ament, F. et al. Do air pressure and wind speed influence the outcome of myopic laser refractive surgery? Results from the Hamburg Weather Study. Int Ophthalmol 34, 1249–1258 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-014-9923-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-014-9923-y

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