Primary surgical options for acute corneal hydrops: A review

Acute corneal hydrops usually resolves alone or with medical therapy along the first 4-6 weeks. However, depending on the severity of the corneal edema or the size of the Descemet break, self-healing might be difficult. Years ago, those patients had no more options than corneal transplantation, but surgical alternatives are on the rise in this century. These surgeries are becoming more popular with a variety of techniques relegating penetrating keratoplasty to a residual role. These techniques aim to accelerate corneal healing, reduce the edema, improve visual acuity and prevent from severe complications that may appear if corneal hydrops is not treated rapidly. Feasibility and safety are the favorable aspects of these techniques since the complications rates described remain low. In this review, we emphasize the recently published studies that describe both the techniques and their results.