How Can I Interpret Statistical Results Of Laser Eye Surgery?

It is very important prior to undergoing Laser Eye Surgery to understand the statistical likelihood of you being able to achieve your results.  Of course not everybody is a statistician, but at the London Vision Clinic we prepare graphs for all of our patients to clearly illustrate what will be achieved through surgery, based on the patient’s individual prescription. Of course, if patients have any difficulty understanding these graphs, their patient care coordinator will be available to talk them through what the graphs mean and help patients better understand what the outcomes of Laser Eye Surgery are likely to be.

Laser Eye Surgery Results Explained Further…

When you break down a surgeon’s overall results into specific conclusions for each type of prescription range, the difference between patient groups is clear. Generally, the lower your prescription before surgery the higher the likelihood of a better outcome after surgery. When looking at results tables, you must be sure to compare like with like. If your prescription is minus five (-5.00d) and the results tables are showing data from a patient group with prescriptions up to minus three (-3.00d), then this data does not tell you about your chance of a successful outcome.

In fact, conclusions including patients with lower starting prescriptions (-3.00 and below for example) will skew the overall results so this can be misleading for a patient with a higher (-5.00) starting prescription. This also applies in the opposite direction. If you have a low prescription but the outcomes tables show a wide range of patients, including those with very high prescriptions, the overall data would suggest poorer results than you are likely to experience. The closer the data is to your own situation, the more accurate they will be about your individual chance of successful result.