BACKGROUND: Although it is known that backward light scatter increases transiently following most excimer laser photorefractive keratectomies (PRKs), it is not clear that there is a significant increase in forward light scatter, which is of primary concern for the patient. The object of this study was to determine if there is a significant change of forward light scatter at 1 month after (PRK) with an ablation zone diameter of 6 mm. METHODS: Overlapping subsets of 24 normal myopic eyes were tested before (on the day of surgery) and 1 month after PRK, using three instruments: a Stray Light Meter (16 eyes); a Computerized Stray Light Meter (14 eyes); and a mesopic Increment Threshold-Glare Paradigm (six eyes). Differences between the two eyes before PRK were compared with the differences between the same eye before and after PRK, using repeated measured analysis of variance. In addition, increment threshold data obtained from 22 eyes after PRK were compared with those of 60 controls of the same age range and distribution by a t test. RESULTS: None of the statistical comparisons approached significance at the a =0.05 level. Changes in light scatter as small as a factor of 1.95 (Stray Light Meter) and 1.55 (Increment ThresholdGlare Paradigm) could be detected as significant with a high power (0.8). Changes larger than a factor of 21 could be detected with a power of 0.8 for the Computerized Stray Light Meter. CONCLUSIONS: In these data, there is no support for the hypothesis that forward light scatter increases significantly 1 month after PRK with an ablation zone of 6 mm. Any increases in forward light scatter are unlikely to he greater than a factor of 1.5 to 2 under daytime or nighttime illumination conditions. [J Refract Surg. 1995;11:83-88.]