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| OK Glenn. You say that this article supports your claim that nerves go
back to normal, and covers PRK too. Here is the abstract. Obviously
you're wrong. More Hagele Hokum. Why don't you supply the actual link
instead of making small links that take forever to load? Or at least
try tinyurl.com, which work faster. Because you don't want people to
actually CHECK what you've supplied as a reference no doubt. Sorry
Glenn, all these links point out to the same abstract below, which does
not support your claim.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2004 Nov;45(11):3991-6.
Corneal reinnervation after LASIK: prospective 3-year longitudinal
study.
Calvillo MP, McLaren JW, Hodge DO, Bourne WM.
Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Clinic college of Medicine,
Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
PURPOSE: To measure the return of innervation to the cornea during 3
years after LASIK. METHODS: Seventeen corneas of 11 patients who had
undergone LASIK to correct myopia from -2.0 D to -11.0 D were examined
by confocal microscopy before surgery, and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36
months after surgery. In all available scans, the number of nerve fiber
bundles and their density (visible length of nerve per frame area),
orientation (mean angle), and depth in the cornea were measured.
RESULTS: The number and density of subbasal nerves decreased >90% in
the first month after LASIK. By 6 months these nerves began to recover,
and by 2 years they reached densities not significantly different from
those before LASIK. Between 2 and 3 years they decreased again, so that
at 3 years the numbers remained <60% of the pre-LASIK numbers (P
<0.001). In the stromal flap most nerve fiber bundles were also lost
after LASIK, and these began recovering by the third month, but by the
third year they did not reach their original numbers (P <0.001). In the
stromal bed (posterior to the LASIK flap interface), there were no
significant changes in nerve number or density. As the subbasal nerves
returned, their mean orientation did not change from the predominantly
vertical orientation before LASIK. Nerve orientation in the stromal
flap and the stromal bed also did not change.
CONCLUSIONS: Both subbasal and stromal corneal nerves in LASIK flaps
recover slowly and do not return to preoperative densities by 3 years
after LASIK. The numbers of subbasal nerves appear to decrease between
2 and 3 years after LASIK. The orientation of the regenerated subbasal
nerves remains predominantly vertical.
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