Assessment of Epithelial Thickness in Keratoconic Patients Before and After Intra corneal Ring Segment Implantation Using Anterior Segment Optical Coherence Tomography

Abstract

Keratoconus is a complex condition of multifactorial etiology, although the exact etiology is unknown. Histological variations in all layers of the keratoconic cornea have been documented in several studies. Many of these studies have reported contrasting results for epithelial characteristics, highlighting the variable nature of the disease in keratoconus, the thickness of the epithelium becomes altered to reduce corneal surface irregularity. Therefore, the presence of an irregular stroma may be less measurable by frontal surface corneal topography. Analyzing the corneal epithelial and stromal thicknesses and shapes separately can facilitate the detection of the disease in its early stage, Nowadays, there are several therapeutic choices for the management of this condition, among which intra corneal ring segment (ICRS) implantation, had an expanded practice in the previous era. ICRS are small devices made of synthetic material, which are implanted within the corneal stroma in order to induce a change in the geometry and the refractive power of the tissue. In our study we used AS-OCT epithelial mapping to document changes in epithelial thickness in keratoconic patients before and after intra corneal ring segment implantation, with week, month and months follow ups