Evaluation of Wide Corneal Epithelial Remodeling after Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) with Wide-Field Optical Coherence Tomography
Table 3
Epithelial thickness changes in central, paracentral, mid-peripheral, and peripheral zones over time.
Preoperative mean ± SD (μm)
1 day (1) mean ± SD (μm)
1 week (2) mean ± SD (μm)
1 month (3) mean ± SD (μm)
3 months (4) mean ± SD (μm)
6 months (5) mean ± SD (μm)
Central
52.33 ± 2.70
52.88 ± 3.36
52.44 ± 2.87
55.58 ± 3.67
57.39 ± 3.67
56.70 ± 3.22
value
1.000a
1.000a 1.000b
<0.001a <0.001c
<0.001a 0.003d
<0.001a 1.000e
Paracentral
52.23 ± 2.45
53.23 ± 3.13
53.01 ± 2.74
55.87 ± 2.83
57.50 ± 2.95
56.59 ± 2.82
value
0.240a
1.000a 1.000b
<0.001a <0.001c
<0.001a 0.003d
<0.001a 0.533e
Mid-peripheral
51.75 ± 2.31
52.09 ± 3.00
51.25 ± 2.46
53.17 ± 2.48
54.34 ± 2.50
53.36 ± 2.36
value
0.930a
1.000a 0.069b
0.001a <0.001c
<0.001a 0.002d
<0.001a 0.131e
Peripheral
50.03 ± 2.39
48.41 ± 2.80
46.77 ± 2.29
48.33 ± 3.08
49.38 ± 3.26
48.46 ± 2.63
value
<0.001a
<0.001a <0.001b
<0.001a <0.001c
0.791a 0.025d
<0.001a 0.086e
SD: standard deviation. aComparison from preoperative values; bcomparison between (1) and (2); ccomparison between (2) and (3); dcomparison between (3) and (4);ecomparison between (4) and (5).