Autologous keratophakia for the correction of consecutive hyperopia after automated lamellar keratoplasty for myopia.

PURPOSE

Consecutive hyperopia occurs if too much corneal tissue is resected during automated lamellar keratoplasty for myopia. We report what are, to our knowledge, the first two cases of consecutive hyperopia after automated lamellar keratoplasty that were treated by keratophakia with autologous corneal tissue.

METHODS

The patient in case 1 had a spherical equivalent refraction of +3.38 diopters (D) and the patient in case 2 a refraction of +3.63 D in each eye after automated lamellar keratoplasty for myopia. Corneal tissue from the contralateral eye of each patient was obtained with an automated microkeratome and transferred to the overcorrected eye in an autologous keratophakia procedure.

RESULTS

The patient in case 1 had an unaided visual acuity of 20/20, with a spherical equivalent refraction of +0.63 D 4 months after the autologous keratophakia. The patient in case 2 had an unaided visual acuity of 20/60, with a spherical equivalent refraction of -2.25 D 2.5 months postoperatively.

CONCLUSION

These two cases illustrate the use of simultaneous contralateral myopic automated lamellar keratoplasty with autologous keratophakia to treat eyes overcorrected following previous automated lamellar keratoplasty for myopia.