The purpose of this study is to evaluate the recurrence rate and treatment effect of conservative treatment and surgical treatment with diamond burr in reccurent corneal erosion.

Between January 2010 and October 2017, 67 patients who were diagnosed with repeated corneal erosion, 55 patients underwent conservative treatment and 12 patients underwent surgical treatment with a diamond burr were evaluated for the duration of previous treatment, recurrence frequency, symptom severity, visual acuity, and the effect of treatment depending on recurrence. Surgical treatment was performed when corneal epithelial loosening occurred in more than 10% of the cases and the patient required surgical treatment. Conservative treatment was continued in patients who did not want surgical treatment.

There were no differences in the mean age, sex, recurrence frequency, symptom severity, and duration of treatment. All 67 patients were unilateral, and 55 patients underwent conservative treatment. Of these, 23 patients (41.8%) showed improvement, and 32 patients relapsed within 6 months. Ten eyes (83.3%) of 12 eyes treated with a diamond burr showed improvement and two eyes recurred within 6 months. The recurrence rate was lower in the diamond burr group than in the conservative group ( p = 0.011). In comparison with diamond burr and conservative treatment, the visual acuity of the diamond burr group improved statistically significantly compared to the group with conservative treatment ( p = 0.002).

In patients with recurrent corneal erosion, surgical treatment with diamond bur was effective in improving visual acuity and preventing recurrence of recurrent corneal erosion than conservative treatment.