Eyeworld

119 EW CORNEA October 2017 Contact information Carriazo: ccarriazo@carriazo.com aberrations were reduced at 2 years from their mean preoperative value of 5.22 ± 1.87 µm to 0.62 ± 0.41 µm, and coma specifically was reduced from 5.97 ± 4.43 µm preoperatively to 3.39 ± 1.93 µm at 2 years. "It is impossible to obtain a flat- tening effect like this in the cornea from other technologies because we are doing two things: reducing the anterior chamber and reshaping the cornea," Dr. Carriazo said. "We are stretching the cornea and removing the area of the keratoconic cornea that is rising up to regain the corne- al radius. Progression of keratoconus is associated with an increase in the anterior chamber depth due to the posterior corneal steepening, corneal thinning, and irregular astigmatism, therefore our technique addresses each of these problems. It has been reported that keratoconus eyes have significantly deeper anterior cham- bers than normal eyes. The progres- sive anterior chamber deepening correlates with the displacement of the posterior corneal surface and a progressive corneal steepening. The effect of keratoconus is not limited only to corneal thinning. However, most of the currently available tech- niques for management of kerato- conus mainly focus on flattening of the cornea but not on the anterior chamber." According to Dr. Carriazo, it is important to stabilize the cornea after the procedure to obtain good visual results. "Crosslinking can be performed in these patients, howev- er, we have to wait at least 6 months to remove the corneal stitches. Once this heals, at 1.5 years after the ini- tial surgery, we can perform cross- linking or PRK. Crosslinking can help to reduce the refractive defect. But we are just beginning with this technology," he said. The uncorrected visual acuity preoperatively was 20/200 or less in most of the cases. Postoperatively, it was 20/150 to 20/40, and in some cases 20/30 or more. The patients gained up to six lines of best cor- rected visual acuity, and the average number of best spectacle corrected visual acuity gained lines was 3.3 ± 2.5 lines. The 63 patients operated on with this technology did not lose a single line of vision. "Progression of keratoconus means increasing of the anterior chamber depth due to the posterior corneal steepening, corneal thinning and irregular astigmatism. Corne- al lifting results in a physiological shape of the cornea with significant improvement of long-term visual results," he said. EW Editors' note: Dr. Carriazo has finan- cial interests with Ziemer Opthalmic Systems (Switzerland). EACH WEEK, OIS INTERVIEWS THE LEADERS OF OPHTHALMIC INNOVATION The conversations continue between the bi-annual OIS meetings. Subscribe for free, and listen in on weekly one-on-one candid conversations between Tom Salemi and the innovators changing the face of ophthalmology. VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR OUR COMPLETE LINEUP OF PODCASTS WWW.OIS.NET/PODCASTS

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