Medical treatment of operative corneal perforation caused by laser in situ keratomileusis.

Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is an effective procedure to treat a wide range of myopia. The advantages of LASIK over photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) are rapid visual recovery, lower risk of corneal haze, greater regression of myopia, and less postoperative pain. However, LASIK requires more skillful surgical technique and more instrumentation than PRK. Thus, inaccurate and inadequate procedures during LASIK have a higher potential of complications. The complications of LASIK include severing of the corneal flap, epithelial ingrowth, flap wrinkling, corneal astigmatism, and corneal infection. To our knowledge, only one case report by Pallikaris and Siganos has been published of corneal perforation following LASIK; it was a survey of their early 43 patients. Unfortunately, the treatment and the clinical course of the corneal perforation was not reported. We describe the treatment and clinical course of a patient with a LASIK-induced corneal perforation that affected the final visual acuity. We believe that this report on the treatment and recovery of the corneal perforation will be valuable information for refractive surgeons.