Correcting simple myopic astigmatism with the excimer laser.

For one year we followed 46 eyes that had photoastigmatic refractive keratectomy with an excimer laser to correct simple myopic astigmatism. Mean preoperative cylinder was -2.50 +/- 0.70 diopters (D); mean preoperative best corrected visual acuity was 20/25 +/- 1 Snellen line. Mean postoperative refraction one year after surgery was -0.5 +/- 0.2, and mean uncorrected visual acuity was 20/25 +/- 1 Snellen line. In all eyes, the final axis of the residual cylinder was +/- 5 degrees around the preoperative axis. Uncorrected visual acuity equaled best preoperative acuity in 24 eyes. Eight eyes gained one line of best corrected visual acuity, six gained more than one line, and eight lost one line. No patient lost more than one line of uncorrected visual acuity. No significant complications such as haze, halos, eccentric ablation, or hypercorrection were observed.