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Light Touch CK shows improved results over conventional technique
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ROME — The Light Touch CK system produces better outcomes than earlier versions of conductive keratoplasty for patients undergoing treatment for presbyopia, according to one user of the system.
With the Light Touch technique, 90% of the eyes had no change in induced cylinder, compared with 71% in the earlier version, said Marguerite McDonald, MD, speaking at the OSN Rome Symposium.
“In the FDA presbyopia study with 16 treatment spots, 59% of the patients were J1 or better,” Dr. McDonald said. “But now with only eight treatment spots, placed further away from the visual axis, 63% of patients are J1 or better. If we look at J3, it was 91% in the presbyopia study; it is 97% now. Only 6% of the eyes have 1 D increase and only 4% have more than 1 D of increase, but even those few patients with 1 D or more of induced cylinder are still seeing J1 and J2 without correction.”
Dr. McDonald said the biggest change in the updated version is “in the symmetry and magnitude of corneal compression.”
In her experience, she said, “the more the surgeon presses on the cornea at the moment the energy is delivered, the less the refractive response.”
“In the classic technique, the surgeon is pressing hard on the cornea at the moment the energy is applied, but this stretches the corneal stroma just as we are trying to contract it with heat. Consistent, light pressure, just barely making contact with the cornea is much better, allows us to get more effect with fewer spots placed further away,” she said.
Fewer treatment spots means faster visual recovery for the patient, which makes the patient happier as well, Dr. McDonald said.
“We are still following these people in the long term, but we expect that the Light Touch will completely replace the old technique,” she said.
The OSN Rome Symposium is a meeting held jointly by Ocular Surgery News, the Italian Society of Ophthalmology, the Italian Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons and the International Society of Refractive Surgery/American Academy of Ophthalmology.