Clinical results of keratophakia and keratomileusis.

Thirteen keratophakia patients were followed for 13 to 35 months. Eighteen cases of hyperopic keratomileusis or hyperopic keratomileusis using preserved corneal tissue were followed for 2 to 30 months. All 13 patients who underwent keratophakia achieved 20/50 or better acuity. All seven patients having hyperopic keratomileusis achieved 20/60 or better acuity. Eight of the 11 patients who had hyperopic keratomileusis using donor corneal tissue achieved 20/60 or better acuity. The preservation of lenticules after lathing did not adversely affect the correlation between predicted and observed dioptric corrections. There was a statistically significant correlation between predicted and observed dioptric corrections. There was a statistically significant correlation between predicted and observed dioptric correction measured at the corneal surface when the lenticule was lathed from fresh tissue (hyperopic keratomileusis) or from relatively fresh tissue (keratophakia). However, we found that there was poor correlation between the predicted and observed corrections when the lenticule was lathed from donor tissue that had been cryopreserved for long periods of time (hyperopic keratomileusis with preserved corneal tissue).