Retreatment of decentered excimer photorefractive keratectomy ablations.

Abstract

To present two cases of excimer photorefractive keratectomy decentration associated with visual distortion secondary to irregular astigmatism. Patients were retreated with a repeat photorefractive keratectomy using a technique whereby the circle of adherent epithelium overlying the decentered ablation served as a mask. After retreatment, there was significant improvement in the patients' visual symptoms, decreased astigmatism on refraction, and better centration on corneal topography. This method appears to offer an effective means to treat photorefractive keratectomy ablation zone decentration by improving the abnormalities introduced by the initial decentration.