Combination of CK, LASEK may be useful for mild to moderate hyperopia

Paris—The combination of conductive keratoplasty (CK) for distance vision and hyperopic LASEK for near vision seems to be a safe and effective technique for the monovision correction of mild to moderate hyperopia, reported Marguerite McDonald, MD, at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons.

Dr. McDonald, from Tulane University, New Orleans, explained that CK was performed in the dominant eye (n = 12) for distance vision and conventional LASEK in the non-dominant eye (n = 11) for near vision.

The patients were an average of 55 years of age. The average uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) in the eyes treated with CK was 20/63 and in the eyes treated with LASEK 20/60; the average UCVA at near in the eyes treated with LASEK was about J16. There was a slight increase in higher-order aberrations in the non-wavefront treated LASEK eyes.

At 3 months postoperatively, the average UCVA in the eyes treated with CK was 20/25 and 20/40 in the eyes treated with LASEK. The average UCVA at near in the eyes treated with LASEK was J1 and none was worse than J3.

There were no unexpected sight-threatening events in this pilot study, with the exception of one eye treated with LASEK that developed a bacterial infection because the patient did not use antibiotic drops postoperatively. This eye was not included in the analysis.

"The patients liked this treatment very much. This was a very small study that I am going to expand based on these results," Dr. McDonald commented.