This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

More than 40% of Maghreb patients have corneal thickness below limit for refractive surgery

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

PARIS — Central corneal thickness in the north-African population of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco is lower than the average thickness calculated in Europe and central Africa, according to a study.

"Conventionally, what we consider a 'normal' cornea, which can be candidate to refractive surgery, has a thickness of at least 500 µm. Thinner corneas are at a risk for ectasia, haze and less predictable refractive outcomes. If we take this limit into consideration, more than 40% of Maghrebians should be excluded from refractive surgery," Sihem Lazreg, MD, said at the meeting of the French Society of Ophthalmology.

The study involved 1,615 patients from the three Maghreb countries and a control group of 200 patients from France and 170 patients from the Ivory Coast.

"The difference with both control groups was quite remarkable. More than 40% of the Maghreb patients had a corneal thickness of less than 500 µm. Is the cause environmental, genetic or something else? We don't know. For sure, our choices in refractive surgery will be affected," Dr. Lazreg said.

Follow OSNSuperSite.com on Twitter.