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Purpose: To assess the effects of artificial tears on corneal higher order aberrations in dry eye patients. Materials and Methods: 30 right eyes of 30 newly diagnosed dry eye patients were evaluated in this prospective study. After routine ophthalmological examination, Schirmer test and tear break-up time (TBUT) test were performed in all patients. Anterior corneal aberrations were derived from conversion of the corneal elevation profile into corneal wavefront data with 6.0 mm pupil diameter using Zernike polynomails by corneal topography before and 5 minutes after instillation of artificial tear (Eyestil®). Corneal optical aberrations were compared before and after instillation of eyedrop. Results: The study included 17 women and 13 men; the average age of the patients was 44.36±13.22 years. Mean TBUT was 4.78±2.78 seconds and mean Schirmer value was 3.58±2.45 mm/5 minutes. After instillation of artificial tear, significant reductions in corneal total aberration from 1.120±0.35 μm to 0.960±0.34 μm, higher order aberration from 0.674±0.26 μm to 0.464±0.18 μm, coma-like aberration from 0.283±0.10 μm to 0.238±0.09 μm, and spherical-like aberration from 0.254±0.11 μm to 0.221±0.08 μm were detected (all, p<0.001). After eyedrop instillation, statistically significant increment was observed in Strehl ratio (p<0.001). Conclusion: As well as reducing the dry eye symptoms, artificial tears also cause increment in optical quality of the eye. Benefits of artificial tears on visual quality can be evaluated objectively via corneal wavefront aberrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) in the treatment of corneal ulcers resulting from herpetic keratitis (HK) and bacterial keratitis (BK). Material and Method: Forty-six patients (25 HK, 21 BK) treated with AMT for HK or BK-related corneal ulcers between January 2009 and September 2011 were followed prospectively. The visual acuities and ulcer characteristics (depth and localization) prior to AMT and epithelialization time, as well as final visual acuities after AMT, were evaluated. Results: The mean age was 51.9±17.0 years in HK and 53.3±22.0 years in BK and the mean follow-up time was 12.6±6.1 (5-33) months and 10.2±6.8 (3-27) months, respectively. The ulcers were mostly central in HK (72%) and paracentral in BK (52.4%) (p=0.03). Ulcer depth was deeper than 1/2 of the cornea in 14 (56%) HK and in 7 (33.3%) BK (p=0.290). Eight HK patients had scars from previous herpetic keratitis episodes. The mean epithelialization time was 22.3±8.5 (12-50) days in HK and 22.1±10.9 (8-45) days in BK (p=0.488). While epithelialization was achieved in all the patients with BK, 3 HK patients needed adjunctive surgeries (conjunctival flap, tectonic penetrating keratoplasty) in spite of three AMTs. Although visual acuities improved significantly in both groups, this improvement was more evident in BK cases (p=0.018 for HK and p<0.001 for BK). Discussion: Amniotic membrane transplantation is an effective and safe treatment for bacterial and herpetic corneal ulcers. The reason for the lower final visual acuities in the herpetic group was thought to be related to a more central location, deeper involvement and scars due to previous attacks [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]