[Corneal morphometric predictive models from ametropia to excimer laser treatment].

OBJECTIVE To develop corneal morphometric models with refractive error in excimer laser surgery. METHOD A prospective-longitudinal study was conducted on 78 patients (151 eyes) using the LASIK surgical technique, and 56 patients (111 eyes) with myopic astigmatism using ESIRIS (Schwind-Germany) equipment with pendulous microkeratome. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A NIDEK Confoscan microscope was used to obtain and study the images. RESULTS After LASIK treatment 84.3% of the variations in epithelium thickness variations were due to the magnitude of refractive error and the epithelium thickness before LASIK treatment. More than two-thirds (68.8%) of the variations in keratocyte density variations in posterior flap and 48.2% of the variations in the anterior retroablation zone were due to the magnitude of the refractive error. Variations of 90% were found in the corneal thickness after LASEK, which were due to the magnitude of the refractive error before LASEK. CONCLUSIONS Predictive models reveal that morphometrical variations depend of the magnitude of the refractive error. These models are very important in the selection of patient for refractive surgery, and also for the specific technique to use.