To investigate accommodation and progress of patients who showed myopia on manifest refraction in the early postoperative period after LASEK.

Forty-one eyes were included in the present study which had undergone LASEK surgery from February to March 2012. Seven eyes showed myopia over -0.25 D on manifest refraction at 1 month postoperatively, but showed decreased amount of myopia at 2 months postoperatively and were classified as group 1. The other 34 eyes were classified as group 2. The differences between cycloplegic and manifest refraction (CRSE-MRSE) were defined as the amount of latent accommodation and compared between the 2 groups.

Amount of latent accommodation was 0.179 ± 0.426 D in group 1 (7 eyes), 0.265 ± 0.303 D in group 2 (34 eyes) preoperatively, 1.286 ± 0.664 D in group 1, 0.368 ± 0.536 D in group 2 at 1 month postoperatively, and 0.500 ± 0.520 D in group 1, and 0.489 ± 0.546 D in group 2 at 2 months postoperatively. The amount of latent accommodation in group 1 was significantly greater than that of group 2 one month postoperatively. As the amount of latent accommodation decreased, the amount of myopic shift decreased gradually over 2 months in group 1 after surgery.

Transient myopic shift due to increased latent accommodation was observed in several patients one month postoperatively and the amount of myopic shift decreased with time without treatment. Thus, surgeons should consider cycloplegic refraction when planning treatment for patients with myopic regression.