Superficial Keratopigmentation: An Alternative Solution for Patients With Cosmetically or Functionally Impaired Eyes

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Corneal Surgery
• Cosmetic Eye Procedures

Background:

• Corneal abnormalities can cause significant cosmetic disability.
• Traditional treatments like prosthetics or surgery may have limitations.
• Keratopigmentation (KTP) offers a potential solution for cosmetic restoration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy and safety of different superficial keratopigmentation (KTP) techniques.
• To assess the cosmetic outcomes and patient satisfaction following KTP procedures.
• To explore KTP as an alternative to enucleation, evisceration, or keratoplasty.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 136 cosmetically impaired eyes from 130 patients.
• Inclusion of 222 superficial manual and automated KTP procedures.
• Evaluation of cosmetic appearance and patient satisfaction graded as excellent, good, or poor.

Main Results:

• High patient satisfaction (98.5%) reported across various KTP techniques.
• Superficial automated KTP comprised the majority of procedures (57.2%).
• No intraoperative complications; 11.2% experienced postoperative complications with follow-up >3 months.

Conclusions:

• Superficial keratopigmentation is a viable option for improving the cosmetic appearance of impaired eyes.
• KTP provides a less invasive alternative to evisceration, enucleation, prosthetic contact lenses, or keratoplasty.
• The procedure demonstrates good cosmetic results and high patient satisfaction.