Femtosecond laser-assisted anterior lamellar keratoplasty for treatment of herpetic corneal scars

Purpose The aim of this study was to report the results of femtosecond laser-assisted anterior lamellar keratoplasty (FS-ALK) for treatment of herpetic corneal scars in a small group of cases. Patients and methods A noncomparative case series of eight eyes with postherpetic stromal corneal scars underwent FS-ALK using the Alcon WaveLight FS-200. The donor and recipient corneas were cut using the same parameters at 70% depth from the thinnest location of the recipient cornea. The donor cornea was sutured using eight interrupted sutures. The main outcome measures included preoperative and postoperative uncorrected visual acuity and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA, LogMar). Anterior segment optical coherence tomography was done preoperatively and 1 month after suture removal. Complications were documented. Results The procedure was uneventful in all eyes with easy separation of the precut lenticule with no intraoperative complications. The BCVA improved significantly in 7/8 (87.5%) eyes. The mean preoperative BCVA was 0.88±0.15 LogMar and improved 1 month after suture removal to 0.36±0.15 LogMar (P=0.00001). Conclusion The FS-ALK is a safe, easy, and effective procedure for the treatment of herpetic corneal scars.