PONE-D-20-10509

Clinical outcomes after small incision lenticule extraction versus femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK for high myopia: a Meta-analysis.

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wen,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but several points have to be addressed before it can be further considered. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Yu-Chi Liu, M.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This manuscript summarizes clinical outcomes after small incision lenticule extraction versus femtosecond laser assisted LASIK for high myopia using meta-analysis. I have below questions and comments.

Table 1. It’s not clearly described what the numbers are under SE(D) are. Which number is SE? What’s SE or D?

The funnel plot (Supplementary Figure 1) with statistical test results are not robust because tests for funnel plot asymmetry should not be used when the number of studies is less than 10.

Table 3, What CH?(P<0.001)? What are those numbers are under SMILE or FS-LASIK?

In Figures 3 and 4, please add note/legend to clearly indicate which outcome is summarized under figure A, B, C or D.

Line 171, “All of these 10 included studies were retrospective non-random control trials”. Some of these trials are prospective trials. Please double check.

What are the potential reasons that such trials only performed or reported from Asia?

The font size is too small to review conveniently. Please increase the font size in revisions.

Authors please ask an English editor to edit the writing in English.

Reviewer #2: General comments:

#1 The authors have tried to perform a meta analysis on clinical outcomes of SMILE versus FS-LASIK for high myopia. Such initiatives are welcome, but unfortunately very few well-performed RCTs have been performed. Maybe just one...

#2 I think the authors should focus on one outcome, maybe three clinical outcomes: Safety, efficacy and predictability, and focus their manuscript on these aspects. They should leave out biomechanics changes, aberrations etc. This will make the manuscript more clear (see Specific comments).

#3 The vast majority of included studies are based on Chinese patients. This should be discussed.

#4 The manuscript needs to be revised by a native English person.

Specific comments:

#5 Line 68: Please correct that publications up to November 2019 were included.

#6 Line 223 : Drop "Biomechanical effects"

#7 Line 249 ff: Drop discussion on "glare" as this was not primary outcome.

#8 Line 254: Drop discussion on trauma.

#9 Line 259: Drop discussion on "wound healing"

#10 Line 266: Drop discussion on posterior cornea, as this was not investigated.

#11 Line 277: Drop discussion on contest sensitivity, as this was not investigated.

#12 Line 283: Drop discussion on biomechanics changes.

#13 Line 287: Drop discussion on PCE, as this was investigated.

Reviewer #3: This is an important Meta Analysis, and one that has been carried out carefully by the authors. The only question i have is how the authors have left out one study in one context (for looking at UDVA) and used it in another context (HOA's).

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes: Rupal Shah

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PONE-D-20-10509R1

Clinical outcomes after small incision lenticule extraction versus femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK for high myopia: a meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wen,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. We invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 08 2020 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Yu-Chi Liu, M.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: My comments have been addressed, but the abstract have an error which needs to be corrected: In the Results section, the authors write "Pooled results revealed no significant differences ..., the logMAR of postoperative corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA; WMD=-0.04, 95% CI, -0.05 to 0.02, I2=0%, P<0.00001), ..." Think the correct 95% CI is -0.05 to -0.02, which the P value also indicate, and this is also written in the Results section in the manuscript.

Thus, the sentence needs to be corrected.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PONE-D-20-10509R2

Clinical outcomes after small incision lenticule extraction versus femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK for high myopia: a meta-analysis

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Wen,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. We invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 14 2020 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Yu-Chi Liu, M.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Please check the accuracy of the statistics the reviewer mentioned. The P value is significant but the CI includes 0.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Clinical outcomes after small-incision lenticule extraction versus femtosecond laser-assisted LASIK for high myopia: a meta-analysis.

PONE-D-20-10509R3

Dear Dr. Wen,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Yu-Chi Liu, M.D

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: