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Corneal bed thickness post-LASIK may not prevent anterior corneal bulging
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Eyes with thin corneas and high myopia are more predisposed to anterior shifting of the cornea post-LASIK compared with eyes that have a 300-µm bed after surgery, according to a study.
Kazunori Miyata, MD, and colleagues at the Miyata Eye Hospital in Japan studied 164 eyes of 85 patients who underwent LASIK. Patients had a mean myopic refractive error of –5.6 D. Corneal topography was obtained using a scanning-slit topography system preoperatively and 1 month postop. Similar measurements were taken in 20 eyes of 10 healthy subjects for comparative purposes.
Mean residual corneal bed thickness postoperatively was 388 µm. The posterior corneal surface showed a mean forward shift of 46.4 µm in the eyes that underwent LASIK compared with 2.6 µm in the healthy eyes. The researchers found the amount of laser ablation and preoperative corneal thickness were the two most important factors controlling the corneal shift. Residual corneal bed thickness was not a factor in the shifting.
The study is published in the May issue of Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.