Preservative-free Topical Anesthetics for Post-PRK Pain

The goal of this interventional comparative study is to assess the efficacy and safety of a novel regimen of preservative-free topical anesthetics for controlling early postoperative pain following single-step transepithelial PRK surgery.The main questions it aims to answer are:Question 1: Are topical anesthetics effective in reducing post-PRK pain?Question 2: Do topical anesthetics inversely affect the epithelial healing duration? Participants will undergo a bilateral single-step transepithelial PRK surgery to correct their refractive errors and will receive a standard post-PRK treatment regimen for both eyes. Additionally, one eye will be offered a preservative-free topical anesthetic as an experimental group and the other eye will be offered a preservative-free artificial tear as a control placebo group.

Inclusion Criteria:Patients who are candidate for PRK surgery withMyopia up to - 6 diopters or myopic astigmatism up to - 4 diopters.Corneal thinnest pachymetry of 500 µmResidual stromal bed more than 350 µm after epithelial ablation.Exclusion Criteria:Patients withCorneal scars or dry eye disease,Past ocular surgery,History of contact lens wear,Systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and autoimmune diseases,History of oral analgesics abuse.