Objective:

To evaluate the correlation between preoperative factors and short-term postoperative visual improvement in patients with keratoconus treated with intracorneal ring segments implantation. Additionally, to determine surgical complications.

Methods:

Analytical, observational case-control study. One-hundred and ten eyes of 91 patients were included. The preoperative factors evaluated included age, sex, visual acuity, refractive error, surgical technique (mechanical or femtosecond-assisted), pachymetry and keratoconus grade by keratometry. Two groups were obtained according to the gain of lines of uncorrected visual acuity after intrastromal segment implantation surgery, with a gain of 3 or more lines (cases), and a gain of 3 or less lines (controls).

Results:

Only preoperative myopic astigmatism had a statistically significant higher frequency in cases than in controls (p < 0.05). Although there was a greater number of eyes with an average keratometry between 48 - 52 D (Keratoconus stage II) in the cases group, this was not statistically significant. There was no correlation between the preoperative technique used and the postoperative visual result. The percentage of surgical complications was of 1.81%.

Conclusion:

The only factor with a statistically significant correlation with uncorrected visual acuity was the previous refractive error. The incidence of postoperative complications was low.