A new technique of endothelial graft: the femtosecond and excimer lasers-assisted endothelial keratoplasty (FELEK)

Endothelial Approach Ultrathin Corneal Grafts Prepared by Femtosecond Laser for Descemet Stripping Endothelial Keratoplasty

“…In the recent years, much effort has been made for the potential strategies to overcome the existing limitations of conventional microkeratome or femtosecond laser cutting. 2,[24][25][26] Our results demonstrated that combining the use of Femto LDV laser and viscoelastic materials could aid in the creation of ultrathin and planar grafts with maintaining satisfying interface smoothness and endothelial viability. In the present study, the endothelial damage/loss was determined by vital dye staining, SEM and specular microscopy together to get more accurate results.…”

“…9,17 Since the laser cuts a straight line through a highly-compressed and possibly wrinkled cornea, this can lead to an uneven cutting interface. 9 Many attempts have been made to overcome this obstacle, including the use of the combination of femtosecond laser cut with subsequent second microkeratome cut 8 or excimer laser surface ablation, 25,30 or the use of double-pass femtosecond laser ablation, 26 to smooth the surface collagen irregularities. We prepared the posterior lamellae using an endothelial approach, in which the laser need not penetrate deep, thus avoiding scattering effects.…”