Purpose:
To identify and compare the initial therapeutic indication for keratoconus patients over a 15-year period at a private tertiary care eye hospital in Brazil.
Methods:
A retrospective review of medical records was performed in Sadalla Amin Ghanem Eye Hospital in Joinville, SC, Brazil. Four hundred forty three patients (859 eyes) with keratoconus (diagnosed topographically and/or clinically) from January 1st 2008 to March 8th 2010 were included. The results were compared with a similar study performed in 454 patients (881 eyes) at the same institution from June 1996 to July 2000.
Results:
In the 2008-2010 period the initial therapeutic indication was eyeglasses or observation in 136 (15.8%) eyes, contact lenses in 432 (50.2%), corneal collagen crosslinking in 246 (28.6%), intrastromal corneal ring implantation in 48 (5.5%) and keratoplasty in 53 (6.1%). In the previous study among 881 eyes, 141 (15.9%) eyes were recommended for eyeglasses or observation, 746 (84.6%) for contact lenses and 39 (8.6%) for keratoplasty.
Conclusions:
In both studies the recommendation for eyeglasses use or observation (15.8% vs. 15.9%) and corneal transplantation (6.1% vs. 8.6%) were similar. There was a reduction in the primary recommendation for contact lenses use (50.2% vs. 84.6%) as there are other therapeutic options currently available, namely collagen crosslinking and intrastromal rings.
Keywords: keratoconus • transplantation • contact lens