Purpose:
To report one year follow up after anterior lamellar keratoplasty (ALK) and big-bubble deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) assisted by IntraLase femtosecond laser in pediatrics.
Methods:
12 eyes of 12 patients with keratoconus (mean age 16 years) were treated using a 60 kHz IntraLase (Abbott Medical Optics) for the creation of donor and recipient. Four patients underwent ALK (group A) and twelve patients a variant of the big-bubble DALK that we have called IntraBubble in which the femtosecond laser creates a stromal channel where insert the cannula for air injection (group B). Best spectacle corrected visual acuity (BSCVA), spherical equivalent and topographic astigmatism were measured. An independent Student t test was used to compare the data. A P value <0.05 was considered as significant.
Results:
In groups A and B respectively the BSCVA was 6.0±1.0 and 7.3±1.2, the spherical equivalent was -1.5±2.2D and -3.2±1.5D, and the topographic astigmatism was 4.4±1.0 D and 3.7±1.0 D. The difference between the two groups resulted always statistically significant (p<0.05).
Conclusions:
One year after surgery, both ALK and DALK assisted by IntraLase femtosecond laser result as safe and effective also in pediatric patients. However a long term follow up shows a better refractive outcome after the big-bubble DALK assisted by femtosecond laser.
Keywords: cornea: clinical science • keratoconus • laser