[Our initial experience with the surgical correction of astigmatism by sectorial keratorrhaphy]

The authors analyze the first experience with surgical correction of corneal astigmatism by sectorial keratorrhaphy (SKR). The operation consists in sewing an intralamellar nylon (9.00) suture perpendicular to poorly refracting meridian of the cornea. The mechanism of alteration of the corneal curvature resultant from SKR is similar to that in the known wedge-shaped resection of the cornea. The technique of surgery has been mastered in experiments with 12 isolated cadaver eyes. Morphologic studies of 16 eyes of 8 rabbits have lead the authors to a conclusion that prolonged presence of monofilament sutures in the corneal stroma induces the minimal changes in the adjacent tissues, these changes not augmenting over the follow-up period. 15 operations were performed in clinic, the follow-up periods were 4 to 14 mos. The data of the subjective examination of the refraction indicate that corneal astigmatism has reduced by 0.5 to 5.5 diopters, by 2.0-4.0 diopters in the majority of cases. The results evidence that SKR may be used as a method of choice for the surgical correction of hypermetropic or mixed astigmatism.