the results of phototherapeutic keratectomy in the superficial corneal opacities and recurrent corneal erosions

purpose: to study the effect of phototherapeutic keratectomy (ptk) in the treatment of various superficial corneal pathologies. methods: we performed a nonrandomized, prospective study on patients who presented with superficial corneal disease and/or poor vision. fifty eyes were included recurrent corneal erosion (rce): 25 eyes, salzmann’s nodular degeneration: 9 eyes, spheroidal degeneration: 4 eyes, trachoma keratitis scar: 5 eyes, traumatic scar and pseudophakic bullous keratopathy: each one 2 eyes, macular dystrophy, herpetic corneal scar, and band keratopathy each of them 1 eye. all patients were treated with nidek ec-5000 excimer laser. a central 4- 8 mm ablation zone was determined by opacity diameter. follow up ranged from 90 days to 20 months mean 304±165 days for rce group and 395±197 days for others. results: uncorrected visual acuity (ucva) improved from mean of 20/50 (logmar=0.44) and 20/400 (logmar=1.1) preoperatively to 20/30 (logmar=0.2) and 20/120 (logmar=0.78) postoperatively in rce and opacity groups respectively. best corrected visual acuity (bcva) improved from mean of 20/30 (logmar=0.22) and 20/200 (logmar=0.96) preoperatively to 20/25 (logmar=0.07) and 20/100 (logmar=0.65) postoperatively in rce and opacity groups respectively. recurrent erosion dramatically reduces in rce group. conclusion: ptk can improve ucva and bcva in various superficial corneal pathologies and reduce spontaneous corneal erosions but proper case selection is crucial.   iranian journal of ophthalmology 200719(4):6-10