Anterior chamber phakic lens implantation after deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty. Retrospective cohort with 24‐month follow‐up

Abstract

Aims/Purpose: To report the outcome of correction of high myopia with anterior chamber phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs) implantation after deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK).Methods: Retrospective study with 7 eyes of patients who underwent DALK. The main variables measured were corrected visual acuity (CVA) and uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), spherical equivalent, and endothelial cell density (ECD). Follow‐up was performed up to 24 months after the lens implant.Results: The spherical equivalent (SE) recorded a mean of −14.16 (± 3.50) before the lens implant and −0.30 (±0.93) after the implant, with a mean difference of 13.85 (10.25 to 13.85) and a p‐value of <0.001. The mean of uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) before the lens was 1.82 (±0.63), 6 months after lens implant was 0.22 (±0.07), and after 24 months, 0.30 (±0.14) with a p‐value of 0.001. Among patients, 85.71% had a UCVA equal to or better than 0.3 logMAR and 42.85% had a UCVA of 0.2 logMAR vs. 0% preoperatively. 71.42% of the patients had residual ametropia within ±1.00 D. The mean corrected visual acuity (CVA) was 0.31 (±0.06) before lens implantation, 0.12 (±0.04) 6 months post‐ implantation and 0.14 (±0.05) 24 months post‐implantation. All patients had improvement of UCVA of at least 10 lines of vision (range 10 to 14); at 6 months, 71.42% of patients had a gain of at least 2 lines of vision in CVA and at 24 months only one patient had a decrease in UCVA. The mean difference in ECD was 68.71 (95% CI 11.97 to 125.44), corresponding to a loss of 1.26% of cells per year.Conclusions: Phakic IOLs are an effective and stable procedure for management of high myopia after DALK, demonstrating stable safety and efficacy rates up to 24 months. The known risk of endothelial loss should be closely monitored, as such loss is higher compared to eyes with phakic IOL implants without DALK.