The Aging Eye After Radial Keratotomy

The first steps of modern refractive surgery were done by a surgical procedure that is no longer in use: Radial Keratotomy for myopia (RK). Most part of the treated cases refer they have been happy for more or less 20 years even though their clinical charts testify reduced best corrected visual acuity in most of them. When cataract an presbyopia begin to develop, they ask for the help of the ophthalmologidts of nowadays and treating them is a very difficult task because of their extremely bad quality of vision .The purpose of this paper is to show the peculiar problems caused by the radial corneal cuts in an aging eye and to analyse most popular solutions found in literature as well as presenting some cases treated by us in the last years

Casa di Cura San Rossore, Pisa, Casa di Cura Villa Donatello,Firenze

A review of the literature about cataract and presbyopia in RK was performed by Pub Med, Science Direct ,Google Scholar and Cochrane Library.

The clinical charts of of our patients were reviewd in order to expose 2 clinical experiences of ourselves about solutions we have adopted and results and 2 cases who are still waiting to be operated

The surgery of the lens is the most popular procedure in such cases and the appropriate choice of the intraocular lens is crucial.

.Remodelling the cornea in people suffering for the consequences of RK is not yet feasable although it is ideally a goal to envisage.Crosslinking has been adopted in some keratoconus cases treated by RK and was not resoluting for what xoncerns quality of vision. Extraction of the lens and implantation of an IOL is the best and almost only choice nowadays . The IOL must be chosen with extreme accuracy ,case by case.