title: Scleral flap surgery for modification of corneal astigmatism.
abstract: We performed resections and recessions of scleral flaps on human cadaver eyes in order to measure the induced change in keratometric astigmatism. We prepared 3-mm scleral flaps that were 3, 5, 7, or 10 mm long and resected or recessed these flaps up to 1 mm in 0.25-mm increments. Scleral flap resection resulted in up to 10.1 D of net corneal steepening along the meridian of the incision. Scleral flap recessions resulted in up to 7.7 D of net corneal flattening along the meridian of the incision; the effect increased with increasing flap length in the recessed eyes. There was a tendency toward mean corneal flattening with resections and mean corneal steepening with recessions.
mesh_terms: D001251:Astigmatism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D003315:Cornea / Q000473:pathology; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D012590:Sclera / Q000601:surgery*; D013524:Surgical Flaps