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Corneal limbal marking in the treatment of myopic astigmatism with the excimer laser.

PURPOSE
To determine whether preoperative marking of the limbal cornea improves treatment of myopic astigmatism with the excimer laser.


METHODS
Retrospective study on 108 eyes with myopic astigmatism that underwent LASIK or laser epithelial keratomileusis (LASEK) with the Technolas 217 (Bausch & Lomb) excimer laser. Preoperative limbal marking was performed in 47 eyes (marked group). The 12-month results were used for refractive and visual analysis.


RESULTS
The achieved cylinder reduction, spherical reduction, and refractive predictability were similar for the marked and unmarked groups in the overall study collective, in the LASIK and LASEK subgroup analysis, and in a higher astigmatism (> 1.25 diopters) subgroup analysis. Limbal marking showed no influence on the refractive results, and vector analysis showed no significant difference in angle of error among groups.


CONCLUSIONS
Corneal limbal marking failed to improve the refractive outcome in LASIK and LASEK for myopic astigmatism.