Mitomycin C aids corneal healing after photoablation

Lisbon, Portugal - Application of mitomycin C after PRK prevents the development of corneal haze and improves visual acuity. Ewa Mrukwa-Kominek, MD, reported these findings Tuesday at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting.

“Corneal haze can cause significant decreases in visual acuity after refractive surgery, and we sought to determine if application of 0.02% mitomycin C positively affected the corneal architecture,” she said. Dr. Mrukwa-Kominek is from the Department of Ophthalmology, Silesian School of Medicine, Katowice, Poland.

Dr. Mrukwa-Kominek and colleagues studied 13 eyes of 12 patients who had undergone PRK. Confocal examinations were performed before and after surgery and haze was graded on a scale of 0 to 4. Severe haze was defined as grades 3 and 4. Mitomycin C was applied during PRK/PTK to patients who developed haze after PRK and regression of the refractive effect.

Six months after treatment with mitomycin C, grades 0 to 0.5 haze were seen in eight patients, and only one eye had grade 2 haze. The scar tissue that had been observed by confocal microscopy resolved.

“After treatment, the epithelium became more regular, the nerve fibers regenerated, and in Bowman’s layer minimal illumination was seen. Application of topical mitomycin C in patients who had undergone PRK prevents the development of corneal haze and improves the visual acuity without the occurrence of side effects. Confocal imaging showed that corneal healing,” she concluded.