Abstract
Purpose: :
to evaluate the results of femtosecond laser assisted anterior lamellar keratoplasty (Femto-ALK), femtosecond laser assisted deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (Femto-DALK), and manual deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (mDALK) for keratoconous, one year after surgery.
Methods: :
21 eyes submitted to Femto-ALK (IntraLase, AMO, USA), 19 eyes submitted to Femto-DALK and 21 eyes submitted to manual DALK where analyzed for UCVA, BSCVA, corneal astigmatism, corneal pachimetry, endothelial cell density, corneal curvature, and contrast sensitivity with VCTS 6500 (Vistech Consultants inc, Dayton, Ohio, USA).
Results: :
: there was no significant difference between the Femto-DALK and the mDALK in UCVA, BSCVA, and contrast sensitivity; nor was there any significant difference between the three techniques in cell density count, corneal curvature and corneal pachimetry. The major difference was found in UCVA and BSCVA recovery time, and in contrast sensitivity results between the DALK techniques and the ALK technique, in which the worst results during the first year of follow-up were related to the interface scarring
Conclusions: :
the DALK techniques resulted more effective in restoring visual quality with respect to the anterior lamellar keratoplasty technique.
Keywords: transplantation • keratoconus • contrast sensitivity