Central corneal pachymetry in patients undergoing laser in situ keratomileusis1Historical image
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Patients and methods
The data for this report were compiled from a prospective, randomized, physician-sponsored investigation devise exemption study on 450 LASIK patients evaluating the bilateral simultaneous treatment of both eyes versus the treatment of the eyes 2 or more weeks apart. All data in this report are limited to the preoperative examinations, with the exception of the horizontal corneal diameter measurement, which was taken at the time of surgery with calipers by one of four operating surgeons from the
Results
Demographic data of the patients in this study were as follows: 53% were female, mean age was 40 years, age range was 21 to 66 years. Figure 1 shows the distribution of central pachymetric readings. The mean thickness was 550 μm, with a standard deviation of 33 and a range of 472 to 651 μm. The 75th quantile was 572 μm and the 25th quantile was 528 μm. Central pachymetry was negatively correlated with mean keratometric measurement (P < 0.0001) as measured by manual keratometry and the Sim K as
Discussion
To our knowledge, this study reports the largest series of eyes for central corneal pachymetric measurements. These measurements are important because they document the central corneal thickness in a large group of eyes undergoing myopic lamellar refractive surgery. We believe it is essential to measure central corneal thickness in myopic eyes before scheduling LASIK surgery to ensure the central thickness is sufficient to prevent leaving the corneal bed too thin after treatment. The residual
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Cornea Research Foundation of America for data retrieval and analysis.
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