Endothelial Analysis in Patients Having Corneal Intrastromal Surgery with Cornealring for Correction of Keratoconus

Purpose: Evaluate corneal endothelium by means of specular microscopy exam in patients with Keratoconus, before and after Cornealring® corneal intrastromal ring surgery.Methods: One hundred and two eyes of 67 patients, aged between 12 and 45, with the average age of 27.31 ± 8.15 years, 30 females and 37 males, were selected to be submitted to the implant of Cornealring® corneal ring segments in pre- and post-surgery (six months after the procedure) in the External Diseases and Cornea Ward of the Instituto Panamericano da Visao.Results: Of the 102 eyes treated, only those that received two rings of equal thickness up to 250 µ showed statistical significance between the initial and final mean number of endothelial cells (P = 0.008), a decrease of 10.1% in the mean coefficient of variation (P = 0.003), and a 9.75% decrease in initial and final hexagonal cell counts. The other eyes receiving rings of other thicknesses showed no statistically significant differences between the mean initial and final SM examin...