CINCINNATI—LCA-Vision Inc. announced its results for the fourth quarter and full year ending Dec. 31, 2009.

For Q4, revenues were $22.0 million compared with $34.0 million in Q4 2008. Procedure volume was 11,718 compared with 19,424 in Q4 2008 while same-store revenues (71 vision centers) decreased 33.3 percent compared to same period year ago. Net loss was $3.6 million, compared with net loss of $8.2 million for Q4 2008.

For the full year 2009, revenues were $129.2 million compared with $205.2 million in 2008. Procedure volume was 72,776 compared with 115,153 year ago. Net loss was $33.2 million compared with net loss of $6.6 million for full year 2008. Net cash provided by operations was $1.4 million compared with $6.9 million year ago.

“We are balancing cash conservation in the current challenging economic environment against our longer-term objective of managing to profitability and growth when the economy improves,” said LCA-Vision chief financial officer Michael J. Celebrezze.

“Our combined cash conservation and expense reduction measures last year included closing 12 underperforming vision centers, reducing marketing expense by $18.6 million, reducing our headcount by 19 percent, and renegotiating our equipment contracts.

“The payroll and equipment cost reductions resulted in an annual savings of approximately $11 million. We ended 2009 with more than $54 million in cash and investments and currently operate a network of 62 LasikPlus vision centers,” he said.

Chief operating officer David L. Thomas commenting on the results said, “Our decision to reduce fourth quarter marketing and advertising spending to less than $6 million in an effort to align marketing expenses with perceived consumer demand resulted in less than desired procedure volume.” ■ ■