Abstract
Purpose::
To evaluate the confocal microscopy findings at the corneal epithelium and the anterior stroma after epi-LASIK Surgery.
Methods::
10 eyes from 10 patients underwent epi-LASK, epithelial flaps were created with the Amadeus II, epi-LASIK-LASIK microkeratome (Ziemer ophthalmics systems AG, Switzerland). A Visx star 4 system (Visx, Santa Ana, CA, USA) was used to perform the myopic and/or astigmatic laser ablation in all eyes. A central scan of the total corneal thickness was taken with the confocal microscope (Confoscan 4, Fortune Technologies, Italy) before, at 2 weeks and 1 month after surgery. Corneal epithelial thickness and keratocytes morphology at the anterior stroma were analyzed by using the NAVIS software V. 3.5.0 (NIDEK, Multi-Instrument Diagnostic System, Japan).
Results::
Mean epithelial thickness was 44 ± 2.8 µm before surgery. At 2 week after surgery, epithelial thickness decrees 18% (36.5 ± 3.9 µm P < 0.05). At 1 month after surgery epithelial thickness persist 20% thinner than the pre-epi-LASIK measurement (35.4 ± 5.6 µm P < 0.05). The anterior corneal stroma showed more keratocyte activation at 1 month than 2 week after Surgery.
Conclusions::
Corneal epithelium thickness decrees at 2 weeks after epi-LASIK and persist at 1 month after surgery. The anterior stroma showed more keratocyte activation at 1 month than 2 week after Surgery.
Keywords: refractive surgery: other technologies • cornea: epithelium • cornea: stroma and keratocytes