Neodymium:YAG laser surgery in the hospital district of southwestern Finland during the years 1987 to 1998.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE To investigate the annual incidence rates of Neodymium:YAG laser procedures in the treatment of eye diseases. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this population-based retrospective study, we evaluated 6,040 patients treated with a Nd:YAG laser in the hospital district of southwestern Finland during the years 1987 to 1998. The corresponding annual incidence rates of different Nd:YAG laser procedures were calculated using the corrected population statistics of the hospital district. RESULTS The annual incidence rates of all Nd:YAG laser procedures rose significantly (P < 0.0001) from 32.1 per 100,000 patients in 1987 to 169.0 per 100,000 people in 1998. A great majority of Nd:YAG patients were females with a higher median age than the males in the study (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSION The rise of the annual population-based incidence rates of cataract surgery with a 7% to 29% need of Nd:YAG laser capsulotomies explained the increase of all Nd:YAG laser procedures.