title: Diamond burr superficial keratectomy in the treatment of visually-significant anterior corneal lesions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the efficacy and safety of diamond burr superficial keratectomy in the treatment of visually-significant anterior corneal lesions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of 23 eyes (23 patients). Pre- and postoperative visual acuities and refractions, slit-lamp biomicroscopic findings, and the incidence of recurrence of disease after keratectomy were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nineteen eyes had map-dot-fingerprint basement membrane dystrophy and 4 had Salzmann's nodular degeneration. All patients presented with decreased vision, as well as varying degrees of glare, halos, and monocular diplopia. Postoperative follow-up ranged from 3 to 39 months (mean 10.6 months), and no recurrence of the original disease occurred within this period. This procedure improved the best-corrected visual acuity from 20/36 (LogMar 0.250) to 20/24 (LogMar 0.076) by LogMar statistical evaluation (p<0.001) and caused a statistically non-significant (p=0.232) myopic change in the mean refractive spherical equivalent (-0.36 diopter +/- SD 2.28 preoperatively to -0.71 +/- 2.26 postoperatively). Glare and monocular diplopia were subjectively reduced or eliminated in all patients. One patient had mild anterior stromal haze which decreased the bestcorrected visual acuity from 20/25 to 20/30.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Diamond burr superficial keratectomy appears to be an effective and safe method of removing visually-significant anterior corneal opacities.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cornea, External Disease and Refractive Surgery, W. K. Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Michigan, USA.
authors.forename: João Baptista Nigro Santiago
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Malta
authors.forename: Hunson Kaz
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Soong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003315:Cornea / Q000601:surgery*; D003317:Corneal Dystrophies, Hereditary / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D018130:Diamond; D004172:Diplopia / Q000503:physiopathology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011182:Postoperative Care; D011300:Preoperative Care; D012008:Recurrence; D012030:Refractive Errors / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D018130:Diamond