Morphological changes of the cornea, after refractive surgery with laser technique

Abstract

Introduction: the excimer laser constitutes a modern method through which the refractive operation is performed, where the curvature of the cornea is modified to improve the vision of the eye in a more exact and predictable way.

Objective: to describe the morphological changes that the cornea undergoes after refractive surgery with excimer laser (LASEK), at the Ophthalmological Center of the "Celia Sánchez Manduley" Provincial Clinical Surgical Hospital in Manzanillo.

Methods: a longitudinal prospective descriptive study was carried out in 316 patients (623 eyes) with refractive disorders, operated on in the refractive surgery service, in the period from 2015 to 2018; These patients underwent a complete pre- and post-operative ophthalmological study. The variables studied were: age, sex, visual acuity without pre and postoperative optical correction, corneal topography, keratometry and pachymetry. The information was obtained from the ophthalmological medical records of each patient.

Results: the female sex and the ages between 21 and 29 years predominated, the visual acuity without optical correction in the preoperative period was less than 20/100 and in the postoperative period between 20/25 and 20/20. The predominant topographic patterns were: the oval in the preoperative period and the central ablation in the postoperative period; the most frequent preoperative keratometry was 45.00-46.99D and the postoperative 44.00-44.99D, the preoperative and postoperative pachymetry was with values between 541 and 600 microns.

Conclusions: the refractive operation is carried out more frequently in young female adults, without a doubt it brings with it changes in the morphological pattern of the cornea, which improves visual acuity.