THE TREATMENT OF RECURRENT CORNEAL EROSIO NS WITH EXCIMER-LASER PHOTOTHERAPEUTIC KERATECTOMY

Background Recurrent corneal erosion is a common corneal disease and m ay be a difficult disorder to treat with a number of patients sufferin g persistent symptoms despite conventional therapy. Patients and metho ds We present a series of 32 eyes who underwent Excimer-Laser photothe rapeutic keratectomy (PTK) for recurrent corneal erosion. There were 1 1 eyes who were treated during an acute episode of recurrent erosion. All remaining patients were: treated in a symptom-free interval. The a ffected area of epithelium was removed and a 25 pulse ablation was per formed ro Bowman's membrane, Results In 30 eyes there was a marked imp rovement in symptoms postoperatively with no recurrences. However, 2 e yes experienced a recurrent episode 6 days and 2 weeks after PTK respe ctively. Postoperative refraction and corneal topography was unaltered in ail cases. Conclusions Excimer-Laser PTK appears to be a safe and promising procedure for recurrent corneal erosion in cases refractory to medical treatment.