[Treatment of keratoconus using non-freezing epikeratoplasty]

Keratoconus may present a difficult therapeutic challenge when it becomes impossible to adapt Contact Lenses. Penetrating Keratoplasty is sometime difficult to perform and the result is often altered by important astigmatism. Other solutions have been tried with variable results. We treated 26 eyes with Keratoconus that were unadapted to CL bud didn't have central opacities, with Non Freeze Epikeratoplasty. 14 of them are analysed (more than 3 months after suture ablation). 13 increased visual acuity without correction. All of them increased best corrected VA. Medium astigmatism was 3 dioptries, always regular. No major complications were observed. The comparison with an equivalent group treated with Penetrating Keratoplasty showed that the results were equivalent. Epikeratoplasty can be a reasonable alternative in central or large KC without central opacities. It's extraocular and always reversible. The Non Freeze procedure is less aggressive for the graft tissue.