Visual, refractive, and keratometric results of epikeratophakia in children. A two-year follow-up.

Fifty-two patients under the age of 16 years (68 eyes) received epikeratophakia grafts for the correction of aphakia. In 27 eyes, epikeratophakia was a primary procedure combined with lensectomy. Fifteen children underwent bilateral surgery. Overall, the success rate was 91%, and with repeated surgery it was 94%. The average change in refractive error was 15.9 diopters (D) and the average spectacle overcorrection was +0.3 D. Sixty-one percent (35/57) of the eyes were within 1 D of emmetropia and 97% (55/57) were within 3 D of emmetropia. Overall, the refraction was stable in the follow-up between six months and 1 1/2 years following surgery. However, a myopic shift of 2.0 D occurred between six months and 1 1/2 years in very young children following refractive surgery. The corneal curvature was measured only in older children and showed an average increase of 10.7 D. Visual acuity results in verbal patients were comparable to those in patients with contact lenses. The majority of smaller children demonstrated improvement in visual acuity with a combination of epikeratophakia and amblyopia therapy.