I am considering LASIK surgery and have spent a fair amount of time scouring the web for information. What I have been searching for and unable to find are results from any recent clinical studies comparing the success rates between different types, or brands of lasers (e.g. VISX, B&L Technolas 217, etc). The only comparisons I have been able to find were based on pre-FDA approval studies, and are obviously out of date. I have found many sites which offer specifications on the different types of lasers, but none which provide success rates under specific sets of circumstances.

Have any such studies been performed in the recent past? If so, where can one find the results?

Thanks in advance.

Please pardon the fact that I am copying this answer from an answer I supplied last month about studies on LASIK - the question was about LASIK results and how they relate to the level of myopia prior to surgery

As for studies on the results of LASIK - there are thousands of studies reported in the medical literature. You can browse medline to read all of the studies. An easy way to get to medline is to go to AskPhysicians.com and click on bulletin boards - then click on search at the bottom of the bulletin board page. You will then see a button that says search medline.
Once in medline, you can just type in the words: LASIK or LASIK results. You will get hundreds of results (with LASIK results - there were 516 articles).
The second article under LASIK results came out this month - and looked at the results for patients with myopia up to -7.0. They found that the uncorrected visual acuity was 20/40 or better in 94.6% of eyes and 20/20 or better in 81.9%. No intraoperative problems occurred in the 236 eyes in the study. A survey filled out 6 months after surgery reported that 90.5% of eyes were reported with marked to extreme improvement in the overall quality of vision, and 99.0% of patients said they would choose LASIK surgery again.
I should point out that the results of LASIK are related to the level of myopia - and in this study - the maximum amount of myopia was 7 diopters. Thus the study results would be expected to be better than compared to a study that looked at patients with higher degrees of myopia. So when patients are trying to determine the risks versus benefits with LASIK for themselves, one very important factor is their degree of myopia - as patients with lower degrees of myopia have better overall results than patients with much higher degrees of myopia.
I hope this helps answer your question.

Best regards

Bill Trattler, MD