Blood-aqueou barrier after mechanical or nonmechanical excimer laer trephination in penetrating keratoplaty Original Reearch Article

Purpoe To analyze whether nonmechanical trephination with an excimer laer influence potoperative blood-aqueou barrier breakdown after penetrating keratoplaty. Method Patient undergoing penetrating keratoplaty for keratoconu or Fuch dytrophy were propectively randomly aigned to trephination by either excimer laer or conventional mechanical handheld motorized trephine. All urgery wa performed by one urgeon, and preoperative, intraoperative, and potoperative treatment wa identical in both group. Aqueou flare wa quantitatively determined potoperatively in a maked fahion by laer flare-cell meter. For tatitical analyi, the nonparametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tet wa ued. Reult A total of 52 eye of 52 patient were examined (Fuch dytrophy, 10; keratoconu, 42). During the early potoperative period (day 3 to 9), eye that had undergone nonmechanical excimer laer trephination (25/52) howed ignificantly (P <.005) lower flare value than did eye that had undergone mechanical trephination (27/ 52). In both group, flare value returned to normal level by 6 week potoperatively. Concluion Early potoperative bloodaqueou barrier breakdown i le pronounced after penetrating keratoplaty with nonmechanical excimer laer trephination.