Abstract
Purpose: :
To study corneal keratocyte population after LASEK with mitomycin C (MMC) 15 months vs 3 months after surgery.
Methods: :
Sixty eyes were included in this study, all of them treated with LASEK with intraoperative 0.02% MMC, divided into 2 groups. 32 eyes had LASEK performed 3 months before, versus 28 in the 15 months post-op group. Keratocyte density was examined by using confocal microscopy in the anterior, mid and posterior stroma in both groups, and the mean density was compared with a control group of healthy eyes.
Results: :
Keratocyte density in the anterior stroma was 16993,75+ 8001,7 cells/mm3 and 18529,1 + 2917,7 cells/mm3(p=0,3) in the 3 months and in the 15 months groups respectively, in the mid stroma it was 30783,3+ 9300 cells/mm3 in the 3 months and 20754,7 + 3615,3 cells/mm3 in the 15 months groups (p= 0,0001) and 30286,75+ 8321 cells/mm3and 19994+ 3085,9 cells/mm3 (p= 0,0001) in the posterior stroma in the 3 months and in the 15 months groups respectively. The comparison between the average densities through the whole cornea showed statistically significant difference between the 3 months vs 15 months group and 3 months vs normals, but it was not statistically significant different between 15 months vs normals.
Conclusions: :
The changes in the corneal keratocyte population after LASEK + MMC seen in the early post-op, seem to change towards the normal values 15 months after the procedure.
Keywords: cornea: stroma and keratocytes • refractive surgery: other technologies • drug toxicity/drug effects