1. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Influence of Epithelial Flap on LASEK and Epi-LASIK Suphi Taneri, Saskia Oehler Authors have no financial interest. ASCRS, April 9-14, 2010, Boston

2. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Purpose To elucidate the influence of the epithelial flap after EPI-LASIK and LASEK for the correction of low to moderate ametropia on visual recovery, epithelial closure, pain, and haze formation

3. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Methods In this comparative (self-controlled) single-center study 40 eyes were treated with bilateral EPI-LASIK (Zyoptix XP microkeratome with EPI Separator, Bausch & Lomb) and 40 eyes with LASEK. Epithelial flap repositioned Epithelial flap discarded Epi-LASIK20 LASEK20

4. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Visual recovery Mean uncorrected distance visual acuity was better in EPI-LASIK in the absence of an epithelial flap on day 1, 2, and 4. After 3 months the uncorrected distance visual acuity was nearly similar between all groups. (* statistically significant, ** highly statistically significant) *

5. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Pain Perception Pain scores decreased continually from day 1 to day 4 in all groups and showed no significant difference between the 4 groups.

6. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Epithelial Closure * (* statistically significant)

7. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Haze Formation EPI-LASIKMeanRange Flap repositioned0.45 ± 0.370-1 Flap discarded0.43 ± 0.590-2.5 LASEKMeanRange Flap repositioned0.35 ± 0.460-1 Flap discarded0.33 ± 0.440-1 Haze levels (Fantes classification) at 3 months

8. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Perceived Change in Snellen Lines Difference between corrected distance visual acuity preoperatively and uncorrected distance visual acuity postoperatively

9. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Efficacy Indices

10. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Results: Safety Indices

11. Augenabteilung am St. Franziskus Hospital Münster Conclusion No clinically significant differences of LASEK and EPI-LASIK could be detected regardless of epithelial flap retention in terms of visual recovery, epithelial closure time, pain perception, and haze formation. Treatment modalities may be used at the surgeon’s discretion.