What is loss of BCVA? (Posted: jan 2005)

This is a reduction in the best acuity (eyechart score) one can achieve WITH glasses.

What causes loss of BCVA? (posted: jan 2005)

There are a great many complications which can reduce the BCVA: intraoperative flap complications; postoperative inflammatory or infectious complications; ablation defects such as decentrations, central islands or irregular astigmatism.

What does it mean for the patient? (posted: jan 2005)

It depends how much is lost. Any loss of BCVA will be noticeable to the patient. A moderate loss of BCVA might be one to three lines. Above that the patient will be quite seriously affected.

Is all vision loss a loss of BCVA? (posted: jan 2005)

No. Patients can experience substantial, even dramatic loss of vision quality without experiencing a loss of BCVA. A classic example would be double vision. Double vision might impair a patient's vision quite substantially but coexist with good visual acuity, meaning the patient sees the 20/20 line on the chart - but sees two charts.

How is it diagnosed? (posted: jan 2005)

Standard refraction ("better 1, better 2?" type exam).

How is it treated? (posted: jan 2005)

It depends entirely on the cause. If the cause is entirely due to ablation defects, higher order aberrations and the like, often the BCVA can be restored with gas permeable contact lenses. But flap complications, or inflammatory or infectious complications will require treatment appropriate to the complication.

Where can I learn more about loss of BCVA? (posted: jan 2005)

Click here for Encyclopedia entry, which may have additional articles and links.