Abstract: We describe the results of a 30 patient Phase Iclinical trial using the Laser Thermokeratoplasty (LTK)treatment for correction of hyperopic astigmatism. Wereport the results for 29 patients who have reached 2months post-operative. The average pre-op cylinder wasreduced from $MIN@3.06 Diopters (D) to $MIN@1.21 D.Average spherical equivalent (SE) refractive error wasreduced from $PLU@2.28 to $PLU@1.34 D. Six patientshave reached 4 months post-op; the average cylinder ofthese patients has been reduced from $MIN@1.92 to$MIN@0.79 D while the average SE has been reduced from$PLU@1.29 to $PLU@0.31 D. Although patients had varyingdegrees of astigmatism pre-op, all treatments wereperformed with identical parameters (intended tocorrect a small amount of astigmatism) to enable us todetermine the effect of the procedure without theinfluence of other factors such as varying zonediameter or laser fluence. The predictability andstability of the LTK procedure are supported by arecent study of 20 patients treated in Germany bySeiler for low to moderate degrees (2 - 4 D) ofhyperopia. After 6 months post-op, 16 of 20 patientsare within $POM 1 D of the attempted correction.Longer-term follow-up will be necessary to determinethe ultimate refractive stability of the LTK procedure.!5
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