CHICAGO -- November 10, 2009 -- Laser eye surgery to correct vision problems does not appear to be associated with lasting changes to cells lining the inside of the cornea at 9 years after the procedure, according to a study published in the November issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
Sanjay V. Patel, MD, and William M. Bourne, MD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, studied 29 eyes of 16 patients who had undergone photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) or laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK).
Photographs of the endothelial cells were taken and analysed before and 9 years after surgery. The annual rate of corneal endothelial cell loss in the eyes of patients who had had surgery was compared with those of 42 eyes that had not undergone either procedure.
Nine years after surgery, the density of cells lining the cornea had decreased by 5.3% from their preoperative state. However, the average annual rate of cell loss (0.6%) was the same in corneas of eyes that were operated on and those that were not.
"Our results support the findings of numerous short-term studies that found no significant endothelial cell loss after LASIK and PRK," the authors wrote.
"The importance of the findings in our study relates to using corneas that have undergone LASIK or PRK as donor tissue," they concluded.
"Our findings of no difference in endothelial cell loss after keratorefractive surgery compared with normal eyes suggests that corneas after keratorefractive surgery should be suitable for posterior lamellar keratoplasty."
SOURCE: Archives of Ophthalmology
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