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Standardised Reporting Of Laser Eye Surgery Results

The growth of Laser Eye Surgery as a medical speciality has been substantial over the recent years.  As the speciality of refractive surgery has matured, the value of publishing outcomes of surgery results is ever more important.

It can get very confusing for one who is considering Laser Eye Surgery, and when analysing or comparing results between:

  • Techniques
  • Procedures
  • Technology
  • Surgeons and clinics
Standard graphs for reporting refractive surgery

This comparison becomes a far greater challenge without a standardised approach to presenting the surgery results.

A standardised reliable method of reporting results can best be achieved by peer-reviewed journals strictly adhering to a universal standard or format for reporting outcomes.

In 2000, George O. Waring III, in association with the editorial staff of the Journal of Refractive Surgery and the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, published an article titled “Standard Graphs for Reporting Refractive Surgery”, which set out a concise six-graph format for reporting clinical outcomes, covering the four main areas of

  • 1. accuracy
  • 2. efficacy
  • 3. safety
  • 4. stability

As a section editor and member of the editorial board for the Journal of Refractive Surgery, Professor Dan Reinstein has made it his mission to optimize the quality of refractive outcomes publications firstly by improving the set of Standard Graphs (as published in an editorial in November 2009), and then by lobbying the prominent refractive surgery journals to enforce the use of this standard. In January 2011, three of the top journals (Journal of Refractive Surgery, Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and Cornea) published a joint editorial stating their commitment to require these graphs to be included in any Laser Eye Surgery outcomes paper.

Thanks to Professor Reinstein, we can now look forward to an era of standardised reporting in refractive outcomes, which is sure to benefit the future potential of the speciality.

Some recent developments have included refractive outcomes analysis software. This programme is the only ophthalmology outcomes management software in the world that automatically performs an analysis of wavefront guided Laser Eye Surgery. Most importantly, it can study and analyze ANY surgical procedure that changes the refractive error of the eye

Improvements to reporting are being made continually which will help when selecting the best surgeon and comparing surgical outcomes to make the right decision.

Contact a Patient Care Coordinator at 0207 224 1005 to discuss what results you can expect to achieve.