title: Six-year experience with excimer laser surgery for primary keratoconus in Russia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report our results using PRK combined with PTK to treat keratoconus.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one patients (70 eyes) underwent PRK+PTK with a Nidek EC-5000 excimer laser. PRK included spherical or cylindrical ablations, or both. PRK ablation zone diameter was 6.00 mm. PTK was performed with an ablation zone diameter of 8.00 mm and a transition zone of 9 mm. PTK ablation zone was decentered toward the cone apex, according to corneal topography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Refractive results: UCVA increased from 0.07 +/- 0.003 to 0.76 +/- 0.03 (69.2% of eyes had uncorrected visual acuity of 1.0); mean BSCVA increased from 0.70 +/- 0.03 to 0.83 +/- 0.04; myopia decreased from a mean 5.32 +/- 0.62 D to 1.55 +/- 0.30 D and astigmatism decreased from a mean 3.25 +/- 0.53 D to 1.75 +/- 0.25 D. Therapeutic results: Keratoconus progression was stopped in 91.43% of eyes with a mean follow-up of 3.5 years and maximum follow-up of 6 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PRK+PTK with the Nidek EC-5000 excimer laser was an excellent option for patients with primary keratoconus.
authors.affiliation: New Line Vision Ophthalmology Research Center, State Research Institute of Eye Diseases RAMN, Moscow Russia. cornea@orc.ru
authors.forename: Elizaveta A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Kasparova
authors.forename: Arcady A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Kasparov
mesh_terms: D019781:Corneal Topography; D018450:Disease Progression; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007640:Keratoconus / Q000601:surgery*; D054018:Lasers, Excimer; D018903:Photorefractive Keratectomy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D012029:Refraction, Ocular; D054140:Refractive Surgical Procedures; D012426:Russia; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity