Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate confocal microscopy findings after trans-PRK.
Methods :
16 eyes of 8 patients with mild to moderate myopia with or without mild astigmatism were included and treated with StreamLight™ tPRK with the WaveLight® EX500 excimer laser (Alcon Laboratories, Forth Worth, TX, USA). A central scan of the total corneal thickness was taken with the confocal microscope Confoscan 4® (Fortune Technologies, Italy) before and one month after treatment. Corneal epithelium thickness and morphology were evaluated, depth of activated keratocytes was measured, and corneal stroma ablated was calculated by the difference between preop vs. postop total stromal thickness. All measurements and morphology analyses were done busing the NAVIS software V. 3.5.0 (NIDEK, Multi-Instrument Diagnostic System, Japan).
Results :
Corneal epithelium thickness before surgery was 45.4 ± 5.4 vs. 44.6 ± 5.3 µm after surgery (P=.463). Epithelium morphology was similar between before vs. after surgery findings. One month after treatment, the mean depth of activated keratocytes was 22.9 ± 7.8 µm (range 10 to 33). Mean corneal stroma ablated was 35.9 ± 20.2 µm (range 10 to 67)
Conclusions :
Corneal epithelium showed similar morphology and not significant difference in thickness one month after trans-PRK compared to preop findings; corneal stromal findings are similar to PRK previous reports.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.