purpose: to evaluate the prevalence, natural course, and final visual acuity in patients with stages iii or iv of diffuse lamellar keratitis (dlk) following laser in situ keratomileusis  (lasik). methods: in this descriptive study, records of all the patients who underwent lasik surgery in two private excimer laser clinics were reviewed. according to linebarger- lindstrom-hardten classification...

purpose: to evaluate the role of prophylactic topical steroids in the prevention of dlk after lasik. methods: in a randomized double blind clinical trial, 101 lasik candidates aged 18 to 55 years were enrolled. myopia ranged from -2 to -12 diopters and was stable for at least one year. no patient had any ocular or systemic contraindication for lasik. from one day before surgery, topical betamet...

BACKGROUND Diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) is a relatively new syndrome that is increasingly being reported after LASIK. We have observed that a hyperopic shift may be associated with the occurrence of this diffuse lamellar keratitis. CASE PRESENTATION A 26 year old man developed bilateral diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) following myopic LASIK. The residual refractive error was +0.5D OD and...

purpose: to report a case of diffuse lamellar keratitis (dlk) 9.5 months after laser in situ keratomileusis (lasik) associated with a corneal foreign body. patient and findings: a 32-year-old male developed dlk two days after removal of an intraepithelial corneal foreign body 9.5 months after noncomplicated lasik. dlk was eliminated after two weeks of topical steroid application and visual acui...

PURPOSE To determine whether bacterial endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), could induce diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) in an animal model and whether DLK could be prevented by endotoxin blockers such as polymyxin. METHODS Laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) flaps were created in rabbit eyes. The stromal bed was treated with 20 microg of Burkholderia cepacia LPS or balanced salt solution (...

Dr Hoffman and colleagues were frustrated and perplexed after a persistent epidemic of diffuse lamellar keratitis at the Oregon Eye Institute, Eugene, Oregon.The incidence of DLK during the epidemic ranged from 16% to 85% per surgical day, he told a session of the XXII Congress of the ESCRS. Previous outbreaks of DLK have been attributed by other investigators to everything from bacterial endot...

BACKGROUND To report a first case of late-onset diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) occurring 4 years after femtosecond laser-assisted small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE). CASE PRESENTATION A 41-year-old man who underwent SMILE 4 years prior developed DLK in the right eye 1 day after he was struck in the eye by a finger while playing with his son. Slim-lamp microscopy and anterior segmen...

PURPOSE To analyze the incidence and clinical outcomes of patients developing diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) treated with topical and oral corticosteroids. SETTING Oregon Eye Institute, Eugene, Oregon, USA. METHODS A retrospective analysis of the last consecutive 1000 LASIK cases was performed. Eyes developing stage 3 DLK or at risk for progressi...

We present a case of an iatrogenic double flap created during laser in situ keratomileusis using a femtosecond laser microkeratome that resulted in development of severe diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK). The DLK occurred mainly in the second interface, made by the spatula accidentally and not exposed to femtosecond or excimer lasers. Because of differences in the severity of the interface infla...

Here we report a case of a 29-year-old myopic female who underwent femtosecond laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and, on the first postoperative day slit-lamp examination revealed a dense, white, granular reaction with the presence of some blood droplets (stage I diffuse lamellar keratitis [DLK]) in her left eye, specifically localized into the femtosecond LASIK flap tunnel (not ext...