Progress report on a post-radial keratotomy patient 20 years after surgery.

PURPOSE: Patients who have received Radial Keratotomy (RK) often require custom rigid gas permeable (GP) contact lenses to correct residual refractive errors post surgery. This paper is a long-term extension of a case report originally published in 1988 describing the course of a post-RK patient fitted with ortho-K design GP lenses.

METHODS: Visual acuities (VA), corneal curvatures, and refractive errors were collected from both the patient's medical record and the original case report published in 1988. These data were then plotted on graphs to observe the long-term effects of RK and rigid contact lens wear.

RESULTS: Although there was substantial fluctuation in refractive errors, VAs, and corneal curvatures shortly following RK, the patient's long-term results post-RK have remained relatively stable for the past decade.

CONCLUSIONS: Although RK decreased our patient's myopia for about 6 diopters per eye, ortho-K appeared ineffective for our patient over the long term. It is important for practitioners to know the process involved in treating post-RK patients and to understand that large overall lens diameters, sometimes reverse geometry design, GP lenses with good edge lifts, often provide reasonable mechanical and physiological fits while optimizing visual outcomes for these patients.