How can I interpret statistical results of laser eye surgery?
When you break down a surgeon’s overall results into specific results for each type of prescription range, the difference between patient groups is clear. Generally, the lower your prescription before surgery the higher the likelihood of a better outcome after surgery. When looking at results tables, you must be sure to compare like with like. If your prescription is minus five (-5.00d) and the results tables are showing data from a patient group with prescriptions up to minus three (-3.00d), then this data does not tell you about your chance of a successful outcome. In fact, results including patients with lower starting prescriptions (-3.00 and below for example) will skew the overall results so this can be misleading for a patient with a higher (-5.00) starting prescription. This also applies in the opposite direction. If you have a low prescription but the results tables show a wide range of patients, including those with very high prescriptions, the overall data would suggest poor
