Post-refractive surgery complications and eye disease, active component, U.S. Armed Forces, 2005-2014.

Refractive surgery (RS) is a common procedure in the U.S. military population. This report provides an estimation of incident RS for vision correction purposes in the active component of the U.S. military from 1 January 2005 through 31 December 2014 and the prevalence of post-RS complications and eye disease in the 1-year period after RS. During the surveillance period, a total of 121,571 subjects without a diagnosis of eye disease other than hyperopia, myopia, or astigmatism in the previous year received a single incident RS procedure. In the 1-year period after RS, 5.3% of subjects with preoperative hyperopia or myopia had treatment-persistent (unresolved) hyperopia or myopia; 2.0% of subjects with preoperative astigmatism had treatment-persistent (unresolved) astigmatism; and 3.8% were diagnosed with tear film insufficiency. In general, most outcomes showed higher prevalences in Army and Air Force personnel versus Navy and Marine Corps personnel, in women versus men, in officer versus enlisted personnel, and in aviation and Special Forces personnel. A wide variation in outcome prevalences was noted by procedural military treatment facility.