Epithelial Healing Process After Epikeratophakia

Abstract

To investigate the epithelial healing after the epikeratophakia procedure, the corneas of white rabbits were histologically studied following the procedure. Although the epikeratophakia graft was re-epithelialized about 10 days after the procedure, and was normalized in thickness at day 90, it took much longer for the normalization of ultrafine structures of microvilli and intercellular junctions. This study suggests that the cryolathing process of the graft cornea may adversely affect re-epithelialization in epikeratophakia.