[Photorefractive keratectomy following undercorrected myopic epikeratoplasties]

Five eyes had a delayed refractive regression following myopic epikeratoplasty; the undercorrection ranged between -8.00 and -10.00 diopters. Four of the 5 eyes had a loss of best spectacle visual acuity of two Snellen lines or more. Excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy was performed to achieve a full refractive correction. A dense subepithelial haze was observed in the 5 eyes. The 3 months postoperative refraction ranged between -1.00 D and +2.50 D but the spectacle corrected visual acuity reached only 0.1 to 0.2. Because of the poor visual acuity results, the five epikeratoplasty lenticles were removed, resulting in restoration of best preoperative spectacle visual acuity in 4 of the 5 eyes. Excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy was not a helpful means of correcting residual high myopia after myopic epikeratoplasty. The poor results may be explained by the preexisting stromal abnormalities.