Diamond burr superficial keratectomy in the treatment of visually-significant anterior corneal lesions

Abstract

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of diamond burr superficial keratectomy in the treatment of visually-significant anterior corneal lesions. METHODS: A retrospective review of 23 eyes (23 patients). Pre- and postoperative visual acuities and refractions, slit-lamp biomicroscopic findings, and the incidence of recurrence of disease after keratectomy were studied. RESULTS: Nineteen eyes had map-dot-fingerprint basement membrane dystrophy and 4 had Salzmann's nodular degeneration. All patients presented with decreased vision, as well as varying degrees of glare, halos, and monocular diplopia. Postoperative follow-up ranged from 3 to 39 months (mean 10.6 months), and no recurrence of the original disease occurred within this period. This procedure improved the best-corrected visual acuity from 20/36 (LogMar 0.250) to 20/24 (LogMar 0.076) by LogMar statistical evaluation (p<0.001) and caused a statistically non-significant (p=0.232) myopic change in the mean refractive spherical equivalent (-0.36 diopter +/- SD 2.28 preoperatively to -0.71 +/- 2.26 postoperatively). Glare and monocular diplopia were subjectively reduced or eliminated in all patients. One patient had mild anterior stromal haze which decreased the bestcorrected visual acuity from 20/25 to 20/30. CONCLUSION: Diamond burr superficial keratectomy appears to be an effective and safe method of removing visually-significant anterior corneal opacities.