Excimer laser refractive surgery rate in Iran: 2010–2014

Abstract

PurposeTo determine the rate of excimer laser refractive surgery in Iran and its trend during 2010–2014, and the number of surgeries per ophthalmologist.MethodsTwelve provinces were considered for the study; 4 major referral provinces of Tehran, Fars, Isfahan, and Khorasan, and 8 others which were selected randomly. Then a number of excimer laser centers were chosen from each province. In the timeframe between 2010 and 2014, one week per season was randomly selected for each center, and the number of surgeries conducted in these 20 weeks was determined by trained personnel.ResultsIn the 12 surveyed provinces, 28 of the 57 active surgical centers were selected. The rate of excimer laser refractive surgery in 2010 in Iran was 2764 per million population which reached 3744 per million by 2012 and took a slightly decreasing trend to 3582 until 2014. Based on the number of ophthalmologists and the number of surgeries in 2014, the average number of surgeries per ophthalmologist was 103 surgeries.ConclusionThis is the first study to report the rate of excimer laser refractive surgery in Iran.

Keeping an eye on eye care: monitoring progress towards effective coverage

“…We recommend that a history of refractive surgery is also considered when calculating distance vision eREC so as not to underestimate the met need component of the calculation method. This is in recognition that refractive surgery is highly prevalent in many countries, 23 , 24 particularly high-resource settings. 25 Future work is required to develop and validate questions that accurately ascertain a history of refractive surgery among survey participants.…”