The effect of radial keratotomy on ocular integrity in an animal model.

The safety of deep corneal incisions in radial keratotomy was evaluated in a porcine model of blunt trauma. One eye of each enucleated pair (right and left) of porcine eyes was subjected to a variation of radial keratotomy; the fellow eyes served as unoperated-on controls. All eyes were subjected to a standard injury. Control eyes ruptured at the equatorial sclera. Eyes with radial incisions cut through approximately 70% of corneal thickness also ruptured at the equator. When incisions of this depth (70%) were extended across the limbus (rather than to the corneal-scleral junction), all ruptures occurred at the limbal incisions. Eyes cut 95% to 100% of corneal thickness tended to rupture at the incisions. The safety of deep radial keratotomy incisions with respect to ocular integrity is discussed.