Thirty-three eyes with symptomatic epithelial basement dystrophy, unresponsive to current standard modalities of therapy, were treated with a total superficial epithelial keratectomy. Follow-up was from 2 months to 7 years 5 months with an average of 47 months. All patients were relieved of their preoperative symptoms and only 3% have shown any evidence of recurrence of their dystrophic process.