Introducing a Revised Tissue Saving Protocol for Combined Topography-Guided Photorefractive Keratectomy and Cross-Linking in Keratoconic Corneas.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to introduce a revised tissue-saving technique for combined topography-guided photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and cross-linking for keratoconus (KC) treatment and to evaluate its efficacy, safety, and stability.

METHODS

This retrospective, noncontrolled study was performed at Maadi Eye Subspecialty Center and Eye Care Center, Cairo, Egypt. The technique was performed on virgin keratoconic corneas with 3 different morphological patterns of ectasia. It involves performing topography-guided PRK before epithelial removal, followed by customized phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) that is tailored to each cornea after studying the treatment profile on the laser treatment screen. The electronic medical records were explored for preoperative and postoperative data, including subjective refraction and topographic data (using Sirius topographer).

RESULTS

The study was conducted on 123 eyes of 93 patients with a mean age of 27.98 years ±6.06. The follow-up ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean ± SD of 16.2 months ±10.4). The results showed statistically nonsignificant differences among the 3 ectasia subgroups in treatment spherical equivalent, treatment maximum depth, thickness of removed epithelium, and thinnest residual stromal bed. There were statistically significant differences in almost all values between the preoperative and postoperative data, with significant postoperative patients' improvement ( P value <0.001). The subgroups' results were almost the same as the whole cohort's results. The safety and efficacy indices of the performed procedure showed remarkably high values (1.48 ± 0.21 and 0.87 ± 0.40, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

This revised protocol for KC management maximally preserves stromal tissue with proven efficacy, safety, and stability.