Femtosecond-assisted anterior lamellar corneal staining-tattooing in a blind eye with leukocoria.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the technique and a case report of femtosecond-assisted anterior lamellar corneal staining-tattooing in a blind eye with leukocoria.


METHODS
An anterior lamellar corneal free flap (thickness: 120 microm, diameter: 7.0 mm) was created using femtosecond laser (IntraLase-AMO, Irvine, CA). The free flap was removed and immersed in a commercially available black tattoo pigment. After 9 minutes of flap incubation with the tattoo pigment solution, the flap was continuously irrigated for 3 minutes with balanced salt solution (Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, TX) until all the excessive pigment was removed. The flap was repositioned on the residual corneal bed, and a bandage contact lens was placed.


RESULTS
: There were no intraoperative or postoperative adverse events seen by the 6-month follow-up, although an excellent cosmetic result was achieved.


CONCLUSIONS
: The technique of FALT is simple and efficient for treating cosmetically blind eyes with leukocoria and may overcome the limitations of previously reported techniques. The long-term safety of the commercially available corneal tattoo dyes should be studied further.
Kymionis
George D
GD
Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA. gkymionis@med.miami.edu
Ide
Takeshi
T
Galor
Anat
A
Yoo
Sonia H
SH
D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000150:complications*; D003315:Cornea; D003357:Cosmetic Techniques; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011681:Pupil Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013653:Tattooing; D016896:Treatment Outcome