INTRASTROMAL THERMOKERATOPLASTY FOR CORRE CTION OF SPHERICAL HYPEROPIA - ONE-YEAR PROSPECTIVE-STUDY

Thermokeratoplasty (TKP) is a new procedure for surgical correction of hyperopia. It uses controlled thermal burns of the peripheral cornea with a retractable cautery probe tip in a radial pattern up to a prema rked optical central zone. The thermal effect shrinks the peripheral c ornea and steepens the central cornea. In this report, we prospectivel y evaluated ibr one year, anatomical, functional and refractive result s of a group of 18 eyes treated with TKP (14 patients). Mean preoperat ive spherical equivalent of + 3.62 diopters (D) was + 1.85 D at 12 mon ths resulting in a mean refractive variation of - 1.76 D. The refracti ve effect was significant at the first postoperative month, and subseq uently regressed so that the average refractive correction was 55% at one year. We did not observe any severe anatomical or functional compl ications during fhe follow up period. Regression of the refractive eff ect after TKP seems to be related to the remodeling response of cornea l stroma surrounding points of coagulation. Like other current techniq ues of surgical correction of hyperopia (hexagonal keratotomy, TKP usi ng Holmium-YAG laser Excimer laser), TKP is a procedure fbr which opti cal results at one year show poor predictibility and stability. We sug gest that adjustments to the surgical prediction software and long ter m studies would allow to improve our results.