Conductive keratoplasty for presbyopia: 1-year results

To assess the safety, efficacy, and stability of conductive keratoplasty (CK) in the treatment of presbyopia.

Ten near plano presbyopic patients (6 women and 4 men) underwent unilateral CK in the non-dominant eye to improve their near vision. Mean age was 51 +/- 3.1 years (range: 46 to 56 years). The surgeries were the author's first 10 CK procedures performed. The postoperative target for these eyes ranged from -1.25 to -1.75 diopters (D).

Preoperative mean manifest refraction spherical equivalent (MRSE) was -0.18 +/- 0.27 D (range: -0.75 to -0.25 D), yielding a mean near uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) of J10 (range: J12 to J5). Twelve months after CK, the mean near UCVA was J1 (range: J3 to J1) with 90% (9/10) eyes J1 and 100% (10/10) eyes J3 or better. The mean MRSE was -1.31 +/- 0.53 D (range: -2.25 to -0.75 D). Treated eyes lost an average of 2.2 +/- 2 lines (range: 0 to 5) of distance UCVA but gained an average of 8.7 +/- 2 lines (range: 4 to 11) of near UCVA. No eye lost best spectacle-corrected visual acuity or had induced cylinder > or = 0.75 D. Nine (90%) of 10 patients had binocular distance UCVA < or = 20/20 and near UCVA < or = J1 and all 10 (100%) patients had binocular distance UCVA < or = 20/25 and near UCVA < or = J3.

Conductive keratoplasty for the treatment of presbyopia provided safe and effective results 1 year following the initial surgery. Longer follow-up will be needed to describe refractive stability. The mean near and distance UCVA results were better than expected for the amount of refractive change observed during this study.