To predict the accuracy of preoperative refractive error measurement methods in wavefront-guided laser-assisted subepithelial keratectomy (LASEK) surgery and to formulate a nomogram for satisfactory surgical results.

The medical records of 30 patients (57 eyes) who had undergone wavefront-guided LASEK were reviewed. The ideal surgical ablation amount was defined as the sum of the real surgical ablation amount and the remaining refractive errors. Comparison between the ideal surgical ablation amount and preoperative refractive errors was made using autorefraction, manifest refraction, cycloplegic refraction, postcycloplegic refraction, wavescan, and iTrace aberrometer measurements.

The refractive errors measured by the postcycloplegic refraction showed the closest relation with the ideal surgical amount, and the nomogram based on this refraction correlated statistically significantly with the ideal surgical ablation amount. The refractive error using the wavescan also showed more accurate refractive measurements than the autorefractor and iTrace aberrometer.

Accurate manifest refraction immediately before surgery is the most important in determining the ablation amount. Additionally, the refractive errors measured with the wavescan, which is an aberrometer used for wavefront-guided LASEK, showed a minimal amount of errors. After reviewing the results, the nomogram based on these 2 methods can be concluded to possibly contribute to an increase in the accuracy of surgery.