The Effect of Topical Prostaglandin Synthesis Inhibitor and Therapeutic Contact Lens on the Pain and Corneal Reepithelialization after Excimer Laser PRK

ABSTRACT

In order to evaluate the effect of topical prostaglanduin synthesis inhibitor(Diclod) and therapeutic contact lens(T-lens) on pain control and epithelial wound healing following excimer laser photorefractive keratectomy(PRK) we examined the score of subjective pain & the degree of corneal epithelial defect on 40 consecutive patients with or without above treatment. The patients were subdivided into 4 groups : 10 patients treated with only pressure patch(Group 1), 10 patients with pressure patch & Diclod(Group 2), 10 patients with only T-lens(Group 3), and 10 patients with T-lens & Diclod(Group 4). Diclod(Group 2&4) was effective on pain control during three days after excimer laser PRK, while T-lens treatment was not effective. Subjective pain score between the patient with Diclod(Group 2&4) and those without Diclod(Group 1&3) was significantly different(p< 0.05). In the point of epithelial wound healing after excimer laser PRK, 95% of patients treated with T-lens(Group 3&4) revealed no epithelial defect three days after excimer laser PRK, while only 65% of the patients treated with pressure patch revealed that. The difference was statistially significant(p< 0.05). Diclod, however, did not influence the epithelial wound healing in both pressure group and T-lens group. In this study we could find that the combination of Diclod & T-lens was a recommendable method to decrease the pain & to increase the epithelial wound healing after excimer laser PRK.